Four San Jose police officers suspended over racist private Facebook group

You’ve probably heard of this one.

Four San Jose, California police officers have been placed on administrative leave after it was revealed that they allegedly took part in a private Facebook group that included current and former employees of the San Jose Police Department.

The group called ’10–7ODSJ’ is said to have had racist and Islamophobic content. 10-7 is police radio code for out of service, so I’m going to assume the ODSJ stood for Off-Duty San Jose and not oh dear sweet Jesus. The group was first exposed in a Medium Post by an anonymous person who says they’re a partner of a police officer who works in the San Francisco Bay area.

To show what kind of content was posted on 10–7ODSJ,  here is something that was posted by a retired SJPD officer…

Outside of the obvious racist rhetoric, there’s also a fair amount of conspiracy theory thrown in. Is this representative of the people that major cities entrust to uphold the public good? It sure is starting to look that way.

But that guy was retired. What about current San Jose police officers?

Ok, then. It doesn’t get more succinct than that.

Another discussion on 10–7ODSJ was about a Muslim woman who sued the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department for forcing her to remove her headscarf in police custody. Whether or not you think the lawsuit had any merit is moot when police are making comments like this…

Now I’m sure some of you will say that this is their First Amendment right to speak like this and it is. However, since they are police officers charged with upholding public safety, every arrest they’ve made against a person of color will now be put in jeopardy over potential civil rights violations. In their rush to make ignorant judgments against blacks and Muslims, they’re not only making their own job more difficult, but they’re also putting the public at greater risk.

The head of the  San Jose Police Officers Association, the SJPD’s union, has said that the union will not offer any financial support to officers found to have participated in the group. That’s honestly refreshing to hear but let’s wait and see what happens after the SJPD’s internal investigation.

In my opinion, any current officer found participating in the group should not only be fired but should be forbidden from working for any law enforcement agency. Unfortunately, that’s not how the world works.