Commentary: There are racist police officers in NH and we need reform now
We are not done here in New Hampshire with the conversation on police reform.
The brutal and deadly beating of Tyre Nichols in Memphis is yet another reminder that the conversation is not over, and the work is not done on the issue of police reform in this country or in our state.
I am tired of hearing “this did not happen in our state." Those words are not comforting in the least. Especially when, in this state, in the biggest police agency, in the most diverse city in our state, you have a detective in 2018 referring to Black men as “parking tickets” and “I am stalking him like a jungle cat." This kind of dehumanization of a person (and unfortunately, all too often a Black man) leads to an officer being able to unleash such unspeakable cruelty on an unarmed Black man.
In the summer of 2020, this state came together and passed meaningful police reforms. That movement was ignited by the murder of George Floyd in March of 2020 at the hands of police officers. An officer kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for over 8 minutes while George Floyd was pleading for his life saying repeatedly “I can’t breathe."
I had the privilege of being a small part of that reform by serving as a commissioner on the Commission on Law Enforcement, Accountability, Community and Transparency (LEACT commission). I naively thought this workwould have more of an impact on aggressively rooting out and eliminating any elements of that toxic culture, that dehumanization of person that could lead to such tragic consequences.
On Feb. 10, 2021, at 6:39 and 6:40 p.m., Detective Christian Horn of the Manchester Police Department sent text messages to two group chats containing approximately 10 other members of the department. The texts consisted of a mock Valentine’s Day card depicting an image of George Floyd surrounded by hearts and the words “Black Love” and “You take my breath away.” In the first group text, approximately three minutes later, another officer (a superior officer in rank) replied, “Haha.”
Three years after the despicable texts from one Manchester detective dehumanizing Black men, and one year after the murder of George Floyd (and all the outrage and reforms that followed) another Manchester detective felt comfortable enough to send this racist meme, dehumanizing George Floyd and mocking his death to 10fellow members of his police organization. Two of those officers were his superiors. The two superior officers did nothing in response to this conduct. Instead, another officer had to go outside his chain-of-command to report the disturbing conduct. That officer is testament to the courage it takes to live up to the honor of the badge.
The Manchester Police Department apparently accepted the representation of the superior officer who responded “Haha” to the meme was intending to respond to another “joke” in this conversation thread. None of the superior officers included in this text thread conversation received any formal discipline for their failure to take any actions to hold the Detective Horn accountable for his actions. The Manchester police are actively fighting in court to prevent the disclosure of the name of these superior officers to the public.
The Manchester Police Department issued a three-day unpaid suspension to Detective Horn and required him to attend sensitivity training (the detective was later selected for a promotion to the rank of sergeant). The department deemed the meme as grossly inappropriate, but not indicative of racism on the part of the detective or systemic issues related to race within the department. I respectfully disagree. As a Black man, and as a resident of Manchester, I am left unimpressed by the response of the department.
In 2013, a sergeant (not from the Manchester Police Department) felt comfortable to tell me (a defense attorney) “if they run, they are going to have some lumps on them." To be clear “they” was used in a general way to refer to suspects.
From 2013 until now, the objective truth I have observed shows that there is a real danger that a police agency can allow a culture to fester within its ranks that dehumanizes people and invites unspeakable violence that can vary from “some lumps” to “I hope they stomp him” to literally breaking someone’s face brutally kicking and punching it repeatedly until they die from those injuries.
The response from political leaders to the chiefs of police who oversee the police agencies in our state needs to be clear: The toxic culture that leads to the dehumanization and violence to unarmed people (regardless of their race) cannot happen in our state, and we owe it to our citizens to do everything we can to identify and remove for our police forces that culture and the officers who perpetuate it.
Julian Jefferson was born and raised in Boston (where some of his family members are current and former Boston police officers). Julian moved to New Hampshire in 2011 to attend law school and has resided here since. Julian was a public defender for 11 years in both the Nashua and Manchester offices. He is currently a visiting professor at UNH Law School.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Commentary: There are racist police officers in NH; we need reform now
