Racism in the NYPD Seeped onto Facebook

Dino Grandoni
Racism in the NYPD Seeped onto Facebook

Some New York police officers really didn't like being assigned to Brooklyn's West Indian American Day Parade, so much so that they vehemently vented their frustrations on Facebook. So they're just like us un-uniformed citizens! Except when an NYPD officer posts on Facebook -- and those posts are tinged with racism -- people besides your Facebook friends notice. The New York Times uncovered racist messages posted on a now-defunct Facebook group from September, which had gone unnoticed to those outside the police force until last month. The group was called “No More West Indian Day Detail,” referring to the annual Labor Day weekend parade frequented by the city's African and Caribbean Americans. The group was for "officers who are threatened by superiors and forced to be victims themselves by the violence of the West Indian Day massacre," according to what was posted on Facebook. The racism in some of the Facebook posts seems pretty blatant, but we'll let you judge for yourself:

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  • "I say have the parade one more year, and when they all gather drop a bomb and wipe them all out."

  • "Welcome to the Liberal NYC Gale,” said another, “where if the cops sneeze too loud they get investigated for excessive force but the ‘civilians’ can run around like savages and there are no repercussions."

  • "Why is everyone calling this a parade. It’s a scheduled riot."

  • "Bloodbath!!! The worst detail to work."

  • They can keep the forced overtime," adding that the safety of officers comes “before the animals.”  

  • "Hearing New York police officers speak publicly but candidly about one another and the people they police is rare indeed, especially with their names attached."

  • "We were widely outnumbered. It was an eerie feeling knowing we could be overrun at any moment."

Two Brooklyn defense attorneys happened upon the public Facebook group before it was deleted and saved a digital copy, which was eventually passed along to The Times. While some officiers contacted by the paper deny posting anything, the issue has been referred to the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau.