Patrolling From the Inside : Sheriff’s New Minority Affairs Officer Intends to Stop Slurs That He Used to Laugh Off

When Philippine-American Dante Honorico patrolled streets for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, he says he was a target of racial slurs from other deputies.

He didn’t mind them at the time, he says. Ten years ago, he chalked the comments up to locker-room banter and threw back barbs of his own.

Today, it is Lt. Honorico’s job to make sure that deputies know that such slurs will not be tolerated in the department.

“The old ways of making racial jokes, no matter how innocuous, they are no longer acceptable,” Honorico, 43, said.

Honorico, the highest ranking Asian-American in the department, was appointed head of a newly formed minority relations committee announced last week after recent allegations of racism in the department.

Two weeks ago, 11 of the department’s 15 black deputies filed claims against the county complaining of racist and sexist behavior among peers and supervisors that ranged from derogatory jokes to a death threat.

The new committee will juggle a number of duties--looking into possible problems with minority recruitment, training deputies about racial sensitivity and investigating allegations of racial and sexual discrimination.

Calling the job a difficult task, sheriff’s officials said they chose Honorico for the assignment in part because he knows what it is like to be a minority in the department.

Honorico--a naturalized citizen who is active in the county’s Filipino community--is one of 10 sworn Asian-American deputies in the department of 607 officers, authorities said.

In addition, he is known throughout the department for being outspoken, Undersheriff Larry Carpenter said. “He has no qualms whatsoever about speaking his mind,” Carpenter said. “He has credibility and integrity.”

Honorico was an active member of the board of the Ventura County Deputy Sheriffs Assn., participating in contract negotiations with management four times over an eight-year period. Team members and adversaries at those bargaining tables describe him as an intelligent and aggressive man.

“He was one of these guys who was real quiet, but when he spoke, you knew it was important,” said attorney Stephen Silver, who represents the association. Gary White, president of the Deputy Sheriffs Assn., said he has known Honorico since 1978 and believes that the lieutenant always pushes for what is right. But White said he would have preferred that officials hire someone from outside the department.

“My fear is that some of the rank and file will not trust him,” White said, noting that suspicion always exists between deputies and managers.

Black deputies continued to call last week for an outside investigator. They say racism has reached crisis proportions that cry for the attention of a nationally recognized expert in minority relations.

“He was a really good supervisor,” said Deputy Kim Garrett, who is black. “But he’s one of the people on the inside.”

Sgt. Kenton Rainey, the highest ranking black in the department, has listed Honorico as a victim in his claim against the county. He said deputies referred to both of them with racial slurs when they worked as partners.

Rainey said he told Honorico about the slurs at the time. But Honorico said he never heard the derogatory names that were used. He would have challenged the people who made the comments if he had known about them, Honorico said.

As it is, Honorico said, he has never felt racial discrimination in the department. However, he said that there are some problems involving racial comments and a lack of awareness of other cultures.

He said he will have no qualms about bringing such concerns to Sheriff John V. Gillespie. But he said the ultimate responsibility belongs to the sheriff.

“I am not the sheriff. I report to him,” Honorico said. “I’ll tell him what actions should be taken. If he doesn’t buy it and he makes a contrary decision, I go on with my life.”

In addition to his job duties, Honorico sits on the board of the Filipino-American Council of Ventura County, an umbrella organization for 22 Filipino groups.

And he is president of the Philippine Patrons of the Arts, U.S.A., an organization that brings Filipino choral groups to the United States. Money made from the performances is donated to orphanages in the Philippines, he said.

He has participated in discussion groups within the community about ways to suppress Filipino gangs in Oxnard. And he is often asked how to settle matters ranging from traffic violations to employment disputes, friends said.

“He is a fairly high-ranking government official among immigrant Filipinos and as such is very frequently approached by members of the general public about various problems that they have,” said Fred Pierce, who participates in some of the organizations with Honorico.

Honorico was born in the Philippine province of Luzon, the oldest son among six children. He studied business administration at college and worked as a manager purchasing materials for his uncle’s textile plant.

But the lack of economic opportunity bothered him. He married in 1969 and applied for emigration the next year. But, he said, the couple despaired of leaving the country as year after year passed without visa approval because of tight immigration quotas.

Meanwhile, martial law was imposed. Honorico needed a special pass to go out past the midnight curfew. He was stopped at military checkpoints. And television broadcast only pro-government news.

“It was a really gloomy future,” he said recently, sitting in his office decorated with posters of the Philippines.

In 1975, two weeks after their visas were approved, Honorico, his wife, Ellen, and their two small daughters left. The family settled in Ventura County, where Honorico’s wife had relatives.

Honorico worked as a security guard and an accounting clerk. But he continued to apply to law enforcement agencies, where the pay was better.

He joined the Sheriff’s Department in 1976.