SFPD officer's racist texts

[GarfieldtheCat]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/26/us/racist-texts-san-francisco-police-officer/index.html

What a nice guy. Some choice texts he sent:

In the messages, Lai makes a disparaging joke about President Obama and says he hates basketball player LeBron James.

"F--- that nig," he says.

"Sprained my ankle over these barbarians," he says.

One of the suspects "went to the hospital after he got shot lol," the officer texted.

"Too bad none of them died," he added. "One less to worry about."

What is interesting is that these were discovered by accident.

Adachi said it made him wonder what other SFPD officers are texting about that has not come to light because they've yet to be accused of a crime.

"What are the chances of two officers being arrested...and there's racists texts on [their phones]?" he said. "I don't know what the odds would be in Vegas."

Wonder how many others share similar views? How many people were arrested or charged based on racist cops testimony? I bet the defense lawyers would love to know this.

The ex-head of the SFPD and current DA said this:

No. 1: There's a substantial number of people within the organization that are racist," he said. "And No. 2: There's a culture that has allowed those people to thrive and survive and even promote within that environment."

So the ex-head cop admits there is a real problem, and that it gets covered up by other cops in the dept. Shocking! I mean everyone tells us these are isolated incidents and cops don't lie. I mean certain apologists tell us that cops rarely lie since they get into a lot of trouble for lying.

But here is a former senior officer telling us they do. Shocking!

 

[OutHouse]

cop wasnt white so racism not found.

 

[alien42]

cop wasnt white so racism not found.

why say something so stupid and ignorant?

are you feeling like an oppressed white male?

 

[Homerboy]

LOL

Don Nobles, Lai's attorney, said the texts were "not reflective of who he is" and that "there is no evidence he carried out any of those sentiments as an officer."

God bless attorneys

 

[Genx87]

Stay classy SFPD

 

[mizzou]

LOL



God bless attorneys

It's hard to prove. Everyone has prejudices, whether or not your prejudice impact your ability to provide a good service is a different story. If an employee is caught in his free time saying something racist, you would have to prove discrimination in the workplace to really have a case of discrimination.

That was some Gran Torino style racism though...so I won't hold my breath for this guy :\

 

[Darwin333]

They were discovered as part of a federal corruption probe into the officers. Fourteen officers, including a captain, were implicated in sending or receiving such texts. Suhr attempted to fire eight of those officers, but was barred from doing so after a judge determined he waited too long to initiate disciplinary proceedings.

What the everloving fuck?!? First of all, since when do judges get involved in an employer firing someone? Second of all, since when was there a timeline in which you must fire someone for being a racist asshole? FFS they can't even get rid of bad cops when they actually try to, which is rare enough as it is.

 

[Darwin333]

It's hard to prove. Everyone has prejudices, whether or not your prejudice impact your ability to provide a good service is a different story. If an employee is caught in his free time saying something racist, you would have to prove discrimination in the workplace to really have a case of discrimination.

That was some Gran Torino style racism though...so I won't hold my breath for this guy :\

If I see or hear one of my employees talking like that in their free time I can and will fire them. When someone talks like that, especially when they are talking about their job, I can not and will not take the chance of him carrying that into the workplace. Just like I won't let anyone drive my company vehicles that has a poor driving record even though that driving record was obtained on his own time. It shows a pattern of behavior that I, as an employer, should have every right to judge what his future behavior on the job might be.

As an employer I am liable for their actions. It's absurd to say that I can't use their off time actions as a judgement for what their actions may be on the clock.

 

[zinfamous]

why Asians be so racist, tho?

 

[zinfamous]

Stay classy SFPD

Anyway, I'm going to play devil's advocate here:

This racist cop seems to be wholly inclusive in his prejudices, and I would be very surprised if this was not the case with a majority of LEOs. Why?

In their job, they are going to encounter the worst examples of humanity on a daily basis or, at least, far more often than anyone else (Save an EMT, maybe). Shitty people are just shitty people, and it seems that this guy has developed a healthy hatred of shitty people that seems to include all races--maybe his own included? I dunno. Point being, I doubt this guy has a very unbiased sample of humanity from which to draw his perspective of people. He encounters a lot of shitty people and, being the generally low-educated type of person we tend to assume go into the police force--he either wrongly or inaccurately attributes that shittiness to their race, rather than the simple fact that these are all just shitty people that tend to come from and live in shitty places that do nothing more than exacerbate their inherent shittiness. Plus, he has a shitty job.

 

[Pocatello]

why Asians be so racist, tho?

We're not racist, we just like people with lighter skin color better. Seriously, though, I don't know.

 

[woolfe9998]

What the everloving fuck?!? First of all, since when do judges get involved in an employer firing someone? Second of all, since when was there a timeline in which you must fire someone for being a racist asshole? FFS they can't even get rid of bad cops when they actually try to, which is rare enough as it is.

Not 100% sure, but I'm going to guess that since the police are union they have a collective bargaining agreement meaning the cops are not "at will" and can only be fired under certain circumstances.

 

[Rakehellion]

Institutionalized racism doesn't exist!

 

[Pipeline 1010]

...Second of all, since when was there a timeline in which you must fire someone for being a racist asshole? FFS they can't even get rid of bad cops when they actually try to, which is rare enough as it is.

LOL, cute. You think they were actually trying to fire the cops. This guy damn well knows the rules of how to fire a cop. He politically had to look "tough on bad cops" while still allowing his boys to keep their jobs.

 

[Genx87]

Anyway, I'm going to play devil's advocate here:

This racist cop seems to be wholly inclusive in his prejudices, and I would be very surprised if this was not the case with a majority of LEOs. Why?

In their job, they are going to encounter the worst examples of humanity on a daily basis or, at least, far more often than anyone else (Save an EMT, maybe). Shitty people are just shitty people, and it seems that this guy has developed a healthy hatred of shitty people that seems to include all races--maybe his own included? I dunno. Point being, I doubt this guy has a very unbiased sample of humanity from which to draw his perspective of people. He encounters a lot of shitty people and, being the generally low-educated type of person we tend to assume go into the police force--he either wrongly or inaccurately attributes that shittiness to their race, rather than the simple fact that these are all just shitty people that tend to come from and live in shitty places that do nothing more than exacerbate their inherent shittiness. Plus, he has a shitty job.

He is free to quit said shitty job anytime he wants. In fact I encourage he and others like him quit asap.

 

[marincounty]

What shitty job? SF cops make well over $100k per year with ridiculous retirement benefits.

 

[soulcougher73]

Probably just a product of his environment. Years on the beat in the bad parts of town seeing the same things day in and day out could do that to a person id imagine. Shitty job though, i could never be a cop.

 

[Darwin333]

Not 100% sure, but I'm going to guess that since the police are union they have a collective bargaining agreement meaning the cops are not "at will" and can only be fired under certain circumstances.

And there is a time limit on those "certain circumstances"??? Do teachers unions fight for the right of their teachers not to be fired if it's been a few years since they molested a kid or some shit? I am just baffled at how the fuck you get something like that in a contract or law without the other side calling bullshit. Then again, since it's a public union they are essentially bargaining with themselves so maybe I can understand how complete and totally absurd bullshit gets passed...

Completely insane nonetheless.

"Sorry public, we know we have some bad cops but we are legally bound to continue to employ them in their current positions so that they can continue to be bad cops. Hopefully we can fire them the next time they deprive you of your civil liberties, continue being racist assholes or shoot an innocent person. Just know that if you happen to be the one that gets the long dick of the law wrongfully shoved up your ass we really really tried."

Once again I am in awe of how fucked up the entire LEO and system of justice is in this country.

 

[Darwin333]

LOL, cute. You think they were actually trying to fire the cops. This guy damn well knows the rules of how to fire a cop. He politically had to look "tough on bad cops" while still allowing his boys to keep their jobs.

That might be true but the mere fact that such a rule or law exists is one of the most insane things I have ever heard of.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

If the texts were found inadvertently and are not directly related to these corruption charges, who cares?

 

[Genx87]

What shitty job? SF cops make well over $100k per year with ridiculous retirement benefits.

Christ, read what I was responding to.

 

[Zaap]

Anyone who's honest with themselves knows being a cop would probably make you HATE, I mean FUCKING HATE a large swath of humanity.

No, it's no excuse becoming a virulent racist, but anyone pretending that if it were their job to do half the shit cops get called on to do wouldn't start to just loathe people after a while is just lying.

Constantly being blatantly lied to, having orders you lay out disobeyed, disrepected in extreme and obnoxious ways, your LIFE threatened...

No way day in, day out that isn't having some negative effects.

Most people, we hear violence and disorder happening, we're used to that comfy feeling of "someone else will handle that!" but few people stop and think what'd be like if they were that 'someone else' all the time.

A cop rarely gets called out because people are being awesome human beings- they get called on because people are being punkass, violent, crazy, abusive, loud-mouthed, high, drunk, theiving, raping, stealing, robbing, murderous... dickheads.

It'd be tough not to have that affect you and change your perceptions of people dramatically. And yet, in large part, that's the job.

And the old "so just quit then..!" with the implication that perfect you would handle so much better being shat on by the ass-end of humanity daily... no you wouldn't.

 

[Pipeline 1010]

That might be true but the mere fact that such a rule or law exists is one of the most insane things I have ever heard of.

A large part of the reason this rule exists is probably exactly for this purpose. It is being used as intended: a way to avoid firing bad cops.

 

[Pipeline 1010]

Anyone who's honest with themselves knows being a cop would probably make you HATE, I mean FUCKING HATE a large swath of humanity.

No, it's no excuse becoming a virulent racist, but anyone pretending that if it were their job to do half the shit cops get called on to do wouldn't start to just loathe people after a while is just lying.

Constantly being blatantly lied to, having orders you lay out disobeyed, disrepected in extreme and obnoxious ways, your LIFE threatened...

No way day in, day out that isn't having some negative effects.

Most people, we hear violence and disorder happening, we're used to that comfy feeling of "someone else will handle that!" but few people stop and think what'd be like if they were that 'someone else' all the time.

A cop rarely gets called out because people are being awesome human beings- they get called on because people are being punkass, violent, crazy, abusive, loud-mouthed, high, drunk, theiving, raping, stealing, robbing, murderous... dickheads.

It'd be tough not to have that affect you and change your perceptions of people dramatically. And yet, in large part, that's the job.

No, I wouldn't hate a large swath of society. I might hate or dislike some individuals whom I had bad encounters with, but to decide to hate an entire swath of humanity? Why? How would I even go about deciding which swath to hate? You seem to be implying that you could decide based on race and that it is OK because boo hoo cops have it really rough. Which they don't.

And the old "so just quit then..!" with the implication that perfect you would handle so much better being shat on by the ass-end of humanity daily... no you wouldn't.

Bullshit. If you can't handle the job without becoming a hate-filled racist then get the fuck on out. It doesn't matter if Joe Schmoe can't do the job better than you. It is fucking irrelevant. You. Can. Not. Do. Your. Job. QUIT.

 

[nexus5rocks]

Anyway, I'm going to play devil's advocate here:

This racist cop seems to be wholly inclusive in his prejudices, and I would be very surprised if this was not the case with a majority of LEOs. Why?

In their job, they are going to encounter the worst examples of humanity on a daily basis or, at least, far more often than anyone else (Save an EMT, maybe). Shitty people are just shitty people, and it seems that this guy has developed a healthy hatred of shitty people that seems to include all races--maybe his own included? I dunno. Point being, I doubt this guy has a very unbiased sample of humanity from which to draw his perspective of people. He encounters a lot of shitty people and, being the generally low-educated type of person we tend to assume go into the police force--he either wrongly or inaccurately attributes that shittiness to their race, rather than the simple fact that these are all just shitty people that tend to come from and live in shitty places that do nothing more than exacerbate their inherent shittiness. Plus, he has a shitty job.

He also made negative comments towards Asians so he just seems like someone who is angry at the world.

"Some dumb Asian chick driving for Uber didn't look and changed lanes right into my car," the texter said.