Five San Francisco officers found exchanging racist, homophobic texts

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

World | Fri Apr 1, 2016 2:45am EDT

Five San Francisco officers found exchanging racist, homophobic texts

SAN FRANCISCO | BY JIM CHRISTIE

Five more San Francisco police officers were found to be exchanging racist and homophobic text messages with one another, forcing a review of hundreds of criminal cases that may be compromised by their bias, the city's chief prosecutor said on Thursday.

The disclosure by District Attorney George Gascon came a year after 14 other members of the San Francisco Police Department were caught up in a similar texting scandal.

The latest inquiry surfaced amid heightened scrutiny of police encounters with members of minority groups following numerous high-profile killings of unarmed black people by police across the United States since mid-2014.

Gascon said he recommended in a letter on Wednesday to city Police Chief Gregory Suhr that the five newly implicated officers be assigned to desk duty to avoid adding to the potential caseloads tainted by personal bias exposed in their text messages.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sanfrancisco-police-idUSKCN0WX2ZB

[MagickMuffin]

1. Interesting detail about the bench intervening

The police department sought to fire seven of the original group of 14 officers, but a judge ruled against the dismissals, citing the statute of limitations.

The previous scandal resulted in a review of 4,000 cases, including 1,600 in which charges were brought, with 13 dismissals so far, city prosecutors said.

I don't believe there should ever be a statute of limitations on racist remarks by LE

[FLPanhandle]

2. Were these private texts made on their own phones?

Disturbing the government had the right to access/read private communications if so.

If they were texts made on government phones, then I can understand the access and the officers are not only bigots but stupid as hell too.

[Iggo]

3. Cops? Racist?

Nooooooooo.