Dozens of law enforcement officials within the San Francisco Bay Area metropolis of Antioch are being probed after it was discovered that excerpts from their private group chat allegedly contained racist and homophobic textual content messages.
The metropolis’s mayor and residents alike are outraged on the scandal. They at the moment are questioning if the bigoted sentiment expressed in these exchanges adjustments how these officers police the neighborhood.
Racist, Homophobic Text Messages Emerge Amid Probe Into Bay Area Police
The texts in query got here to mild on April 11 after The Bay Area News Group obtained a duplicate of an investigative report written by Contra Costa District Attorney Senior Inspector Larry Wallace in regards to the group’s messages to one another.
The scandal is now on the heart of an FBI investigation and Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office investigation into Bay Area police departments courting again to 2019, based on ABC 7 News.
Contra Costa DA: nobody in workplace leaked second redacted report on Antioch Officers’ racist texts
Won’t say who despatched the report or to whom; points additional redacted second reporthttps://t.co/6hxBQ6Ws26 pic.twitter.com/1HUxonIHkK— Contra Costa Herald (@cocoherald) April 17, 2023
The investigations named 17 officers as individuals within the chats, which make up roughly 1 / 4 of the Antioch Police Department.
However, the East Bay Times experiences that 44 Antioch officers have gotten as least one textual content message included within the investigation of the group.
17 Officers Place On Leave Before Report Emerged Showing Pattern Of Racist Epithets
Seventeen of these officers have been positioned on go away as of Wednesday, April 12.
The textual content messages reportedly emerged Friday, April 14, in a 14-page report. They allegedly revealed a sample of officers utilizing racial epithets about African-Americans and confirmed a way of satisfaction in utilizing violence in opposition to them.
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“I’ll bury that n—-r in my fields,” Antioch Sgt. Joshua Evans allegedly texted Officer Morteza Amiri in December 2020.
Amiri texted Officer Eric Rombough In February 2020: “Nshowingo they didn’t push it that far. Bunch of gorillas surrounding us and taunting a fight since we were hooking [epithet].”
Texts Allegedly Openly Admit To Violating Citizens’ Constitutional Rights
The messages, which weren’t restricted to solely Antioch officers, allegedly additionally reveal officers brazenly admitting to violating residents’ constitutional rights.
“Since we don’t have video I sometimes just say people gave me a full confession when they didn’t. Gets filed easier,” Amiri texted an officer in Brentwood, one other Contra Costa County metropolis, in April 2020.
A 12 months later, in 2021, The Antioch City Council voted the next 12 months to equip its officers with physique cameras.
Other messages emerged displaying officers expressing their want for racial violence whereas on the job.
In March 2021, Antioch officers deliberate a raid to arrest 22-year-old Terryonn Pugh and Trent Allen. One report doc exhibits Officer Rombough texting Detective Robert Gerber:
“Bro I can’t wait to forty all of them,” referring to utilizing the nonlethal sponge rounds officers use throughout a raid.
— For years, Antioch officers routinely used personal textual content messaging teams to flaunt their racist views, spouting slurs in entrance of superiors with out worry of reprisal. Inside the Antioch police division’s secret racist texting group https://t.co/xeUYpd2XFm
— Kenny Akers (@KeneAkers) April 13, 2023
Raid Allegedly Marred By Racist Text Messages Between Officers
Several days after the raid, Rombough allegedly messaged one other officer, “Bro, my foot hurts.” The officer requested if it was as a result of he’d kicked one of many males, and Rombough replied, “Yup, like a f*****g field goal,” earlier than including, “Gotta stop kicking n*****s in their head.”
Pugh’s lawyer Carmela Caramagno additionally referred to as out the town’s racist officers whereas talking to ABC7. Antioch’s inhabitants is round 24 % Black, based on 2020 census knowledge.
“It is clear that the Antioch Police Department has treated that community like a war zone, and the community members as if they were hostiles.”
Meanwhile, Mayor Lamar Thorpe referred to as for a particular assembly to debate the textual content messages. The city corridor dialogue ultimately ended with feelings working excessive and plenty of up in arms.
Thorpe — an African-American man — mentioned he was “disgusted” by what he discovered in regards to the textual content messages.
20% of the Antioch, California police division has been positioned on go away following an investigation into racist textual content messages between law enforcement officials. One supplied a steak dinner to whoever shot a non-lethal projectile on the mayor through the BLM protests. https://t.co/9kcnDlzCL4
— Deb WARRIOR WOMAN Farmer 🇺🇸 (@realdebfarmer) April 15, 2023
Black Mayor Is Reportedly Targeted In Several Text Messages
The report additionally revealed that in a chat a few Black Lives Matter demonstration in June 2020, Officer John Ramirez allegedly despatched a textual content saying he’d purchase a main rib dinner at a steakhouse for whichever officer used .40mm sponge bullets in opposition to Thorpe.
“I’m blown away that there were threats to my personal life in those text messages,” Thorpe mentioned this week in regards to the risk, CBS News reported.
The mayor is now calling for the entire officers featured within the investigation to be fired.
The FBI is reportedly concerned and started trying into the APD and the Pittsburg Police Department after receiving experiences suggesting officers had been engaged in criminal activity. The officers in query weren’t solely accused of violating residents’ civil rights. But additionally of reportedly dealing medication like cocaine and steroids, deliberately utilizing extreme drive, and accepting bribes.