Twelve weeks after the song dropped, Sir Mix A Lot’s “Baby Got Back’” was number one on the Billboard charts. It was 1992 and the rap song’s refrain, “I like big butts and I cannot lie,” became a pop culture catchphrase. But, some radio stations wouldn’t air it, and the music video was even temporarily banned from MTV because of the sexually explicit lyrics. Lt. Diana Perez didn’t expect to be serenaded with those lyrics last year in the North Providence police station where she worked. But she was. Her balladeer? Acting Police Chief Christopher Pelagio. You can’t make this stuff up.
Lt. Perez is the highest-ranking female officer in the department’s history. For 13 years, she says she’s withstood an onslaught of sexually graphic comments and gestures.
Another of her colleagues, Lt. John Anzivino, pointed to his crotch and with his hands gestured to a female job candidate to sit on his lap. We know these details because Lt. Perez filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the town of North Providence, two named department officers, and the town’s mayor, Charles Lombardi. But, the town’s own investigation found that the officers’ comments and gestures were not harassment. “Offensive” yes, “lewd”, yes, “inappropriate,” yes, and “unwanted”, for sure, but not harassment.
Odd, that’s exactly how the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines as harassment. The Commission’s website describes it as “unwelcome sexual advances,” and “offensive remarks about a person’s sex.” And the website notes, “harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment.”
Lt. Diana Perez felt her work environment was the source of her high levels of anxiety. It prompted her to take a medical leave. Still, she told the Providence Journal, “I want the truth out there.” So, last month she sat in the front row and heard her claims dismissed as office ribbing. Mayor Lombardi read from his official statement, “Interoffice banter is OK or thought to be funny, at times, when we are all getting along, until someone either does not like you anymore or is trying to protect themselves for whatever reason.” Lt. Perez left the room in tears.
I learned about her case just a couple of weeks before the New York Times reported on Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and documented $13 million in settlements to women who accused O’Reilly of sexual harassment. O’Reilly denies their claims of his unwanted advances and lewd comments. Of course, former Fox CEO Roger Ailes was forced out when an internal investigation revealed women at Fox News experienced unsolicited intimate physical contact, and comments on their appearance and sex life.
Bill O’Reilly was fired. But, his accusers understand that millions in lost advertising was likely a bigger motivation than the alleged harassment. Unlike O’ Reilly, the North Providence officers don’t deny saying or doing what Lt. Diana Perez claims. They just don’t believe it’s serious. Sexual Assault Awareness Month ended yesterday. I wonder if those officers — and many others — will ever understand that sexual harassment is no joke. And I wonder how many more women must sacrifice health and career before they are believed.
RELATED: Providence Journal: MISSING: 100+ pieces of evidence in North Providence
