Text messages from a former San Francisco officer reveals disparaging messages against the homeless, minorities, and others.
“Burn down Walgreens and kill the bums,” reads the texts. “Indian people are disgusting.” He appears to have frequently used racial epithets against African-Americans, including Cantonese slang.
There were also coded references to African-Americans and Mexicans. At one point, he made racist comments about Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James and President Barack Obama. “Do you know what obama coffee is?” he asked an unidentified number. He responded with: “Black and weak,” reported the New York Daily News.
He referred to minorities as “barbarians” and a pack of “wild animals on the loose.”
The texts were discovered as part of a SFPD probe into a sexual assault allegation made against Jason Lai, the author of the texts.
“This is a person who’s fully committed to expressing his bias to his friends and fellow police officers,” said Public Defender Jeff Adachi, ABC News reports.
Two other SFPD officers have quit as a result of the investigation, and a fourth is fighting to keep his job.
This is the second texting scandal to have hit the SFPD in the past year. In June, 14 officers were caught exchanging offensive texts. Sgt. Ian Furminger, who was convicted on corruption charges, was at the center of the scandal.
