Three Riverside police officers have been fired over the disabled-veteran license plates on their personal cars, escalating a long-simmering internal fight into a full-blown showdown involving suspensions, a lawsuit, and closed-door City Council talks.
The officers – Timothy Popplewell, Richard Cranford, and Raymond Olivares – are military veterans with 100% disability ratings from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. They were placed on administrative leave last May and later sued the city for discrimination. The lawsuit says the men were targeted after refusing an order to take the plates off their cars, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Police Chief Larry Gonzalez moved to terminate the three after a closed-session City Council discussion earlier this year and a decision not to settle the case, local reporting shows. An internal affairs investigation scrutinized whether the men had improperly obtained the specialized tags, according to Police1…