On Tuesday, the Mercury News reported on a 21-page investigative report that detailed the terrifyingly racist and abusive digital communications of “nearly two dozen” current and former Antioch, California, police officers over the span of two years. The investigation was conducted by Contra Costa District Attorney Senior Inspector Larry Wallace, along with the FBI, and focuses on private text message groups between officers. The results, so far, have led to at least 11 Antioch officers being put on “leave.” To put that into perspective, about 20% of the entire force has been suspended.
The text messages reveal nothing but racism and abuse. Black citizens are frequently referred to as “gorillas,” “monkeys,” and “water buffalo.” Those are the most tepid of the texts, which also include a message from June 2020, wherein Officer John Ramirez wrote to fellow officers that he would buy an expensive San Francisco steak dinner for anyone who shot Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe with a non-lethal crowd control weapon. This was during the Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.
The report is only the first of two; the second has not yet been made public. It was released to defense attorneys by Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Clare Maier on Friday, as a grand jury continues to go through possible criminal charges relating to “at least eight Antioch police officers,” who are allegedly being investigated for “fraud, distribution of steroids and cocaine, as well as eliciting false confessions and accepting bribes to make traffic tickets go away.”
Tuesday’s detailed report by the Mercury News coincided with an already scheduled Antioch City Council session. That session went about as well as one might imagine.
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