Greater than a dozen Antioch cops have been implicated within the newest scandal over racist textual content messages to rock a California police division, in keeping with an investigation by the Contra Costa County district legal professional’s workplace and the FBI.
A report launched Thursday particulars 14 officers’ communications that embody 12 messages likening Black folks to gorillas — lengthy a racist trope — in addition to dozens of situations of the N-word.
Antioch’s inhabitants is round 24% Black, in keeping with 2020 census knowledge. Mayor Lamar Thorpe, who’s Black, was the goal of racist threats within the texts, which have been first reported by Contra Costa Information.
On April 24, 2020, the report alleges, Antioch Police Sgt. Josh Evans texted Officer Morteza Amiri, “I’ll bury that [N-word] in my fields.” Amiri laughed on the textual content. Evans responded, “And sure….it was a tough R on objective.” Amiri replied a minute later, “haha there’s no accidents with you on that.”
5 days later, the report states, Amiri texted a Brentwood Police Division officer: “Since we don’t have video I generally simply say folks gave me a full confession once they didn’t. will get filed simpler.”
In Could 2020, two days after the homicide of George Floyd by Minneapolis cops, Amiri texted one other officer about “riots in LA” over “the gorilla that died.”
As protests over police conduct erupted in Antioch on June 8, 2020, Officer John Ramirez wrote in a textual content to 22 different officers: “I’ll purchase somebody a first-rate rib dinner at Home of prim rib to 40 that mfr [Thorpe] in the course of the protest right now.” The report says that the textual content is referencing using a 40-millimeter launcher to fireside so-called less-lethal ammunition on the mayor.
At a raucous Antioch Metropolis Council assembly on Wednesday, dozens of residents expressed issues in regards to the textual content messages.
“It’s disgusting,” one girl stated, including her hope that the Police Division can rid itself of the “most cancers” of racism. Many shared their very own tales of alleged police misconduct.
In a heated alternate, the mayor rose from his seat to excoriate a commenter for utilizing “canine whistle” language in a critique of the council.
“I’m sick and uninterested in being attacked by these folks on this neighborhood, apologizing for the racism that is occurring,” Thorpe yelled earlier than storming out. He later returned and apologized for dropping his mood earlier than sharing his experiences with officers concentrating on him and the Black neighborhood.
Antioch just isn’t the one California metropolis to be rocked by comparable conduct by police.
Different current scandals involving officers’ texts occurred in Torrance, the place police talked about hurting and killing Black suspects, and Berkeley, the place the president of the cops’ union made racist remarks and known as for arrest quotas.
Two officers linked to the racist textual content scandal in Torrance have been indicted this week within the 2018 capturing demise of a Black man as he sat in a automotive with an air rifle between his legs, in keeping with protection attorneys for one of many officers.
