A San Jose Police Department spokeswoman confirmed the agency was conducting an administrative investigation into the comments.
Four San Jose police officers have been placed on administrative leave amid an investigation into a private Facebook group where bigoted and racist comments were shared among current and retired law enforcement officers.
A San Jose Police Department spokeswoman confirmed Saturday the agency was conducting an administrative investigation into the comments and that the department was seeking help from the FBI.
“While I have no control over what former employees post online, I can voice my outrage after hearing about these comments made online. Any current employee involved with bigoted activity online will promptly be investigated and held accountable to the fullest extent in my power,” San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia said in a statement. “We have no place for this.”
The private Facebook group, 10-7ODSJ, came to public attention this week in an article published on Medium. The author, an anonymous person identified as the partner of someone working for a Bay Area police department, wrote that some current and retired San Jose police officers were posting racist and bigoted comments in the secret group.
The article said that a current San Jose police officer wrote, “black lives don’t really matter,” in a public Facebook comment. In the private group, the same officer joined a discussion about a Muslim woman who sued the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department for forcing her to remove her head scarf in police custody.
“Hell, I would have pulled it over her face,” the officer said in his comment, according to the Medium article.
