San Francisco’s police chief on Friday said that he plans to recommend that seven officers be fired after an investigation into racist and homophobic text messages, according to the Associated Press.
Chief Greg Suhr has asked a police oversight committee to approve firing the officers. Six others face disciplinary actions that include reassignment to positions that do not put them in contact with the public, notes the news outlet. Another officer has resigned, the report says.
The investigation began last month with four officers after the texts were uncovered during an investigation of convicted officer Ian Furminger. Furminger was convicted of corruption and sentenced to more than three years in prison, notes the news outlet.
The text messages “are of such despicable thinking that those responsible clearly fall below the minimum standards required to be a police officer,” Suhr said in a statement.
Authorities say that the texts targeting blacks, Mexicans, Filipinos and gay men were sent between 2011 and 2012.
In one text Furminger wrote, “We got 2 blacks at my boys school and they are brother and sister! There [sic] cause dad works for the school district and I am watching them like hawks.”
After Furminger told a fellow police officer that his wife’s friend was visiting with her black husband, Furminger and the officer wrote, “SFPD Officer: Get ur pocket gun. Keep it available in case the monkey returns to his roots, it’s not against the law to put an animal down.”
Furminger, “Well said.”
City leaders have raised concern that any prejudice by the officers could have led to unfair treatment, particularly in cases involving black defendants, according to AP.
Read more at Yahoo News.