Several police officers in Antioch, California are under investigation for sending text messages described as racist, sexist, and homophobic. A total of 38 officers are under investigation for sending or receiving the messages between 2020 and 2021. The following 14 officers are listed in a complaint recently released by the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office (CCCDAO) as having sent messages:
Sgt. Josh Evans
Sgt. Rick Hoffman
Ofc. Jonathan Adams
Ofc. Morteza Amiri
Ofc. Scott Duggar
Det. Robert Gerber
Ofc. Aaron Hughes
Ofc. Brayton Milner
Ofc. Calvin Prieto
Ofc. John Ramirez
Ofc. Andrea Rodriguez
Ofc. Eric Rombough
Ofc. Kyle Smith
Ofc. Devon Wenger
California Attorney General Rob Banta's office has announced a civil rights investigation into the APD in addition to investigations currently underway by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), CCCDAO, Antioch Police Department (APD), and the Pittsburg Police Department (PPD). The CCCDAO report describes the investigation as "regarding crimes of moral turpitude and criminal offenses." AG Banta says his office will be looking into excessive force claims and convictions involving the officers to see what role their biases played.
We are uploading the PDF from the CCCDAO with this report (see PDF icon above map). The texts are disturbing to say the least. They demonstrate a level of character and integrity far below that which is required for a person to competently perform law enforcement duties. Several include pictures of gorillas described as black people and at least one included a racist cartoon calling a black person the n-word. This author has not seen so much racist reading material in one place since being incarcerated at USP Victorville.
Also reminiscent of this author's time in the Federal Bureau of Prisons is the number of Latinos making racist statements against black people. In the BOP, blacks are always at odds with the Surenos who tend to call black people the n-word just as much if not more than skinheads do. That history includes racial riots between Surenos and blacks. This author once lived with a Sureno who used the n-word almost exclusively when referring to blacks. This author is referring to black people as "blacks" because that is what black people are generally called by non-black BOP convicts.
You can learn more about this case in the video below.