The LAPD just got exposed for a series of disgusting remarks after an individual filed a complaint to the department. From co-workers to applicants, no one was safe from racist, sexist, and homophobic remarks.
The Los Angeles Times gave the details from a lengthy complaint filed with the Los Angeles Police Department. The copy of it detailed up to 90 recordings made in the department’s Recruiting Division Personal History Section where officers were caught talking smack about fellow colleagues and recruits. Their comments were quite disturbing.
Read a few excerpts from the LA Times:
In one conversation, a Latina LAPD officer offered this advice on how to fight African Americans: “You hit black people in the liver; I heard they got weak livers,” according to the complaint filed Jan. 5 with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Professional Standards Bureau and the inspector general’s office. The same officer allegedly described a Latina janitor to her colleagues as a “wetback” after the janitor complained about the officer.
Little, it seems, was out of bounds for the accused officers, who referred to a female supervisor as a “gay ass bitch,” according to the complaint. After one female officer suggested “black people enjoy grape soda,” another Latino officer chimed in, “black people enjoy watermelon in between basketball,” according to the complaint.
Among other nasty comments, one officer said Dodgers baseball player Fernando Valenzuela died because he “ate too much Tacos,” some cops often referred to Black people as monkeys and others used LGBT+ slurs. According to The Times, these very officers making these racist, sexist comments were in charge of deciding who could join the police force.
The officers were identified by the LA Times as Sgt. Denny Jong, who is Asian, Lt. Louis Lavender, who is Black, Ofc. Shirley Burgos, a Latina, Ofc. Christian Flores, a Latino, and an officer identified only as McKay. The report says Lavender was the supervisor and witnessed many of these conversations firsthand but never stopped them.
“Man, we’re going to end up in the L.A. Times the way you all talk in here. You all can bring down the whole department,” he allegedly said in a recording. Welp, he wasn’t wrong.
As of now, the officers have been sent home and stripped of their police powers as the department investigates the complaint, per KTLA. The city’s personnel department is also launching their own probe to see if these conversations impacted the recruiting process, per The Times.