NC cops fired for racist remarks had been demoted or terminated before, records show

Three police officers were fired in North Carolina for making a litany of racist comments during conversations that were inadvertently recorded in a patrol car, according to city officials.

Employment records show two of the three officers have a checkered past with the Wilmington Police Department.

Wilmington Police Chief Donny Williams fired Cpl. Jesse Moore, 50, as well as officers Kevin Piner, 44, and James Gilmore, 48, Wednesday after video footage from Piner’s cruiser revealed the three “venting” about Black people and criticizing their new police chief, who is also Black.

Wednesday was Williams’ first official day on the job as the city’s permanent police chief.

What do we know about the officers?

Moore, Piner and Gilmore had worked for the Wilmington Police Department for more than two decades before their public ousting — but not without interruption, according to a snapshot of their employment history provided by the city. Two were hired in 1997, and the third was hired in 1998.

Moore was separated from the department on June 10, 1999, and reinstated four days later, records indicate. Gilmore was demoted from corporal to officer and put on a leave of absence without pay for a month in 2011.

It’s unclear what led to Moore’s removal and Gilmore’s demotion.

Linda Thompson, spokesperson for the Wilmington Police Department, told the Wilmington Star-News “no additional information or documentation can be released on the officers at this time due to a judge’s order.”

But according to the police department’s policy manual, “serious disciplinary actions like suspension, demotion, or dismissal can occur when there have been improper or excessive use of force; bias-based profiling; illegal conduct; breaches of an individual’s civil rights; or failure of employees to follow departmental directives,” the Star-News reported.

It’s not unusual for police officers who have been fired to be rehired, typically elsewhere. Citing a study of police officers in Florida completed by the Yale Law Review, Newsweek reported around 1,100 full-time law enforcement officers — or about 3% of full-time officers in the state — working in any given year had been fired from another department.

Police named in high-profile cases are no exception, The Guardian reported.

“The officers are afforded every opportunity to clear their name and regain everything they lost – their reputation, their status and their jobs,” Adanté Pointer, a California lawyer who represents police brutality victims, told The Guardian. “The family has to endure disappointment after disappointment.”

In North Carolina, public record laws shield most personnel information unless officials determine a case is exceptional and the release of documents “is essential to maintain public confidence,” according to Wilmington’s police chief.

“This is the most exceptional and difficult case I have encountered in my career,” Williams said.

Police released 17 pages of documents, including a brief overview of the officers’ employment history, the results of an internal affairs investigation conducted after the video came to light and termination letters for all three officers.

According to those records outlining the officers’ employment history, Moore, Piner and Gilmore received more than a dozen merit increases since they were hired.

The trio also moved in and out of the patrol unit and special operations division during their tenure with the Wilmington Police Department.

Officers assigned to the uniform patrol division work 12-hour shifts performing “routine patrol” duties — including answering service calls and “conducting preliminary investigations,” according to the Wilmington Police Department’s website.

The special operations division encompasses the department’s K-9 unit, school resource officers, the traffic unit and the housing task force as well as several field teams, the website states. Those teams include the bomb squad and SWAT team, the crisis negotiation team and the honor guard.

What are the officers are heard saying?

Moore, Piner and Gilmore were assigned to the patrol division when footage from Piner’s car turned up in a routine video audit performed by the Wilmington Police Department.

Piner can be heard talking to Gilmore about the protests roughly 46 minutes into the video, saying the only thing police in Wilmington were concerned with was “kneeling down with black folks,” according to the investigative report. Gilmore later mentioned watching videos of white people “worshiping blacks.”

“How many times have I told you it’s almost like they think they’re their own god?” Gilmore said, according to the report.

When questioned by the chief, Gilmore reportedly said he was concerned with the videos because theBible says “thou shall not bow to any idol.”

In a conversation between Piner and Moore, both officers referred to Black people multiple times as the “n-word,” the report states. At one point, Piner can be heard saying he thinks the U.S. is on the brink of another civil war and he is “ready.” He then reportedly said he planned to buy a new assault rifle.

A short time later, Piner suggests society is close to “Marshall Law(sic),” saying soon “we are just going to go out and start slaughtering them (expletive referring to Black people). I can’t wait. God, I can’t wait.”

According to the department’s investigation, the conversation ended after Piner suggested the U.S. needs a civil war “to wipe ‘em off the (expletive) map, that’ll push em back about four or five generations.”

Moore, Piner and Gilmore did not deny their voices were heard on tape when interviewed by the chief on June 9, the report states. They did, however, deny being racist.

“Each officer pointed to the stress of today’s climate in law enforcement as a reason for their ‘venting,’” according to the investigative report.

Williams said the language could “only be described as hate-filled speech” in their termination letters.