San Francisco’s public defender released text messages Tuesday, April 26, 2016, written by former officer Jason Lai, disparaging blacks, Latinos and others.
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Lai was one of five officers who were recently accused of sending racist and homophobic texts, in addition to 14 others between 2011 and 2012, according to San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon.
The officer resigned in early April over a related scandal that ensnared more than a dozen San Francisco police officers, invited a federal civil rights investigation of the department and heightened tensions with the city’s communities of color.
In them, Lai allegedly made repeated disparaging remarks about black, Hispanic, and Indian people, and used coded language to talk about gay officers. He noted that three of the officers, including Lai, have since voluntarily left the department, while a fourth faces discipline before the police commission including possible termination.
The first texting scandal prompted a review of some 1,600 cases for evidence of biased policing, and ultimately 13 cases were dismissed. Too bad none of them died.
“In many respects we have a history and tradition of progressive politics that has ironically worked against reform, because I think it took a long time for people to recognize that even in San Francisco, we can have the same problems as Ferguson”, said San Francisco Supervisor David Campos, referring to the Missouri city where a black teenager was shot and killed by a white police officer in 2014, sparking a national movement for greater police oversight.
A text stating “burn down Walgreens and kill the bums” was also found on Lai’s phone.
This is the second time in two years officials have investigated the SFPD over racist texts.
The latest texting scandal comes amid the department’s attempts to fix frayed relationships with numerous city’s black residents and others angered by the previous round of inappropriate messages exchanged among officers. “There is no room in the San Francisco Police Department for anyone who holds this type of hateful and discriminatory views”, he said.
“Indian people are disgusting”, he wrote in November 2014.
They were released by Public Defender Jeff Adachi. “One less to worry about”. He apologized to San Francisco. Fourteen officers were caught exchanging offensive texts, mostly with former Sgt. Ian Furminger, who was convicted on the corruption charges.
“There needs to be a clear message sent to the whole community that this kind of homophobic racist nonsense wil not be tolerated at all.” he said.
Lai’s attorney, Don Nobles, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. “We’re better than this …99.9 percent of this police department is feeling the same way I am, betrayed by people who wear the same uniform”.
Suhr has said he will not heed calls to resign and is working to overhaul the department’s use-of-force policies. And in response to the police shootings of Luis Gongora, Alex Nieto, and Mario Woods, a group of protesters have started a hunger strike demanding the resignations of Mayor Ed Lee and Police Chief Greg Suhr.
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Brown said that the only way for relations between minorities and the SFPD to improve is a completely new approach to training.
