Life is no bed of roses for minority workers at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, according to a scathing federal discrimination complaint filed by its former head of security.
Anthony Quarless, 47, says demeaning racial practices undercut his authority and made him and other minority workers feel as welcome as crab grass at the verdant Prospect Heights oasis. After working there for 28 years, he contends:
* He was pressured to accept a white assistant security director over a capable black candidate who’d been employed there longer.
* He was authorized to investigate crimes committed by minority workers but not by whites.
* A white intern caught stealing coins from a fountain was suspended, while a black employee caught swiping cash from the gift shop was not only fired, but “marched through the front lobby in handcuffs — so it would send a message.”
Quarless, who has a master’s from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and supervised 30 guards, contacted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in October 2009 and was booted last July, in part because of his age, the complaint claims.
His lawyer, Eric Sanders, said, “I am quite confident that BBG will regret what they did to Anthony and other employees of color.”
The BBG did not return calls for comment.