Police departments in at least five states are investigating, and in some cases condemning, their officers’ social media feeds after the weekend publication of a database that appears to catalog thousands of bigoted or violent posts by active-duty and former cops.
The posts were uncovered by a team of researchers who spent two years looking at the personal Facebook accounts of police officers from Arizona to Florida. They found officers bashing immigrants and Muslims, promoting racist stereotypes, identifying with right-wing militia groups and, especially, glorifying police brutality. All the posts were public.
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“It’s a good day for a choke hold,” wrote an officer in Phoenix. A sergeant in Philadelphia commented that a young suspect should be “taken out back and put down like the rabid animal he is.” Another sergeant posted a meme that said, “Death to Islam.” In St. Louis, a police official shared a meme asserting that “if the Confederate flag is racist, then so is Black History Month.”
“Obviously, some of the posts are very disturbing,” said Emily Baker-White, a lawyer who launched the Plain View Project in 2017. The work, she said, revealed a troubling online subculture that threatens to undermine public confidence in law enforcement.
Source: Racist, Violent Posts By Police: Departments Investigating
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