A new report claims that at least hundreds of law enforcement officers of the past and present are members of Facebook groups that celebrate anti-Semitism, racism, sexism that encourage hate.
But US police forces have failed to dismiss the majority as experts in online hatemongering claim the system has been infiltrated by white supremacists and misogynists.
Reveal verified approximately 400 profiles of cops that have worked in jails, schools, airports, plus on boats and trains, belonging to the groups, some of which share Islamaphobic memes and express anti-immigration sentiments.
Among those, 150 officers were found to be members of ‘violent anti-government’ Facebook groups like the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters. At least 120 of those profiles discovered actively posted.
Before Facebook changed policies to stop the download of data from groups last summer, researchers got 14,000 hits for law enforcement staff who were members of hate groups but could not verify them all.
Joel Quinn, from the Abbeville Police Department in Georgia, said: ‘It’s also my responsibility to detect possible threats to my community all the way up to and including my country’
Quinn, from the Abbeville Police Department in Georgia was a member of a Confederate group and reportedly posted conspiracy theories and anti-Islam ideology on his personal Facebook
Lonnie Allen Brown of the Kingsville Police Department in Texas, posted a meme that read: ‘If Black lives really mattered …. They’d stop shooting each other!’
Brown shared an image that stated: ‘Islam. A cult of oppression, rape, pedophilia and murder cannot be reasoned with!’
Madison County, Mississippi a sheriff’s deputy, Will Weisenberger, was a member of closed Facebook group White Lives Matter and admitted he ‘may have used the N-word’ when questioned about punching a handcuffed black man in the face.
He’s named in an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit that claims the department has carried out discriminatory policing for decades.
The ACLU states in the lawsuit that the department’s arrest forms came with ‘Black’ and ‘Male’ already filled in on the forms.
Chicago, Lt. Richard Moravec was a member of a closed Facebook group called Any islamist insults infidels, I will put him under my feet.
Moravec – who has been the subject of 70 allegations of ‘illegal use of force, verbal abuse and criminal misconduct’ – once posted a meme featuring young girl with the caption: ‘Please! Don’t confuse me. I’m a girl. Don’t teach me to question if I’m a boy, transexual, transgendered, intersexed or two spirited.’
Detective Steve Fumuso from Westchester County in New York is alleged to have disparaged African Americans, Latinos and the LGBTQ community
Joel Quinn, from the Abbeville Police Department in Georgia was a member of a Confederate group and posted conspiracy theories and anti-Islam ideology on his personal Facebook wall.
He told Reveal in a Facebook message: ‘It’s also my responsibility to detect possible threats to my community all the way up to and including my country,’ he wrote. ‘Think about this, majority of crimes are committed by minorities (black, hispanic, etc) per FBI statistics yet I don’t ‘prey’ on any particular one.’
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting statistics states 68.9 percent of arrestees in 2017 were white.
Madison County, Mississippi a sheriff’s deputy, Will Weisenberger, was a member of closed Facebook group White Lives Matter and admitted he ‘may have used the N-word’
Sickening posts included one which in a day garnered dozens of comments and over 100 emoticon responses – mainly in laughter – about using the skin of African slaves as jackets. A user express ’10/10 would wear’.
· One user posted a link to a piece about how the skins of African slaves were once turned into jackets. It garnered 34 comments and 103 emoticon responses in 24 hours. Almost all of the people reacting to the post gave it the ‘haha’ response. ’10/10 would wear,’ a commenter said.
Another hinted to believing a conspiracy theory that Jewish people are behind a plan for the mass immigration of Latinos to the US. One person commented on a post about the removal of a citizenship question from the 2020 census: ‘When are we going to show everyone what the Jewish cabal is doing?’
Facebook said in a comment it is working to shut down white supremacist groups and others that promote hate speech but it seems the algorithm doesn’t catch slang terms and abbreviations often connected to hate speech.
The Anti-SJW Pinochet’s Helicopter Pilot Academy group refers to throwing social justice warriors – AKA those supporting equal rights – from helicopters in the style of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Six cops – including retired Baltimore corrections officer Perry Tolliver and former Arizona Department of Corrections officer Michael Pinegar – were members of that group, Reveal found. The two allegedly used the ‘dindus’ slur in reference to African Americans online.
Detective Steve Fumuso from Westchester County in New York is alleged to have disparaged African Americans, Latinos and the LGBTQ community in the same group.
Detective James ‘J.T.’ Thomas of Harris County Sheriff’s Office in Houston, Texas was a member of closed group The White Privilege Club
Baltimore corrections officer Perry Tolliver allegedly used the ‘dindus’ slur in reference to African Americans
Six cops – including retired Baltimore corrections officer Perry Tolliver and former Arizona Department of Corrections officer Michael Pinegar – were members of Pinochet’s Helicopter Pilot Academy
Fumuso’s meme featuring a white man making the ‘OK’ symbol was posted under a racist joke about Mexicans but the hand gesture used by the alt-right is unlikely to be picked up by moderators on social media networks.
Fumuso said denied the connection in an interview months after the December 2017 post. He retired shortly after the internal affairs investigation.
Wisconsin Department of Corrections officer, Sheldon Best, was a member of racist, anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant and homophobic group Crusades Against Degeneracy and in 2017 commented on a story about babies of color being a majority in the US: ‘Maybe, but minority on minority homocide (sic) will make sure adults of color remain a minority.’
Lonnie Allen Brown of the Kingsville Police Department in Texas, was a member of three Islamophobic groups, and posted a photo of a black man with a gun to his head. The text read: ‘If Black lives really mattered …. They’d stop shooting each other!’ He also shared an image that stated: ‘Islam. A cult of oppression, rape, pedophilia and murder cannot be reasoned with!’
The Friday Reveal report stated that 50 police departments have said they’d launch investigations into whether the named officers’ pasts reflected their current policing.
But so far only cop has been fired.
Detective James ‘J.T.’ Thomas of Harris County Sheriff’s Office in Houston, Texas was a member of closed group The White Privilege Club.
Louisiana’s Angola prison guard, Geoffery Crosby, was a member of 56 extremist groups, including 45 Confederate groups
One of the groups Crosby was a member of was called BAN THE NAACP
150 were involved with violent anti-government groups such as the Oath Keepers
Among the hateful content it shared invites to events such Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, where a woman was run over and killed. Offensive memes played on a stereotype about African Americans.
Thomas challenged his February firing when referring to a meme he posted about an elderly black woman eating at Popeyes.
He posted it ‘in keeping with the chicken theme’, following a separate picture post of chicken and grape soda that was captioned in a play on the Lunchables brand: ‘Mom packed me a n***able for school.’
‘If you remove the black female out of the picture, what’s racist about it?’ he said at a hearing after which his dismissal was upheld.
Thomas had also captioned a logo of the Black College Football Hall of Fame: ‘Seriously. Why?’
Chicago, Lt. Richard Moravec has been the subject of 70 allegations of ‘illegal use of force, verbal abuse and criminal misconduct’
‘These policies state that ‘an employee’s actions must never bring the HCSO into disrepute, nor should conduct be detrimental to the HCSO’s efficient operation. … Personnel who, through their use of social media, cause undue embarrassment or damage the reputation of, or erode the public’s confidence in, the HCSO shall be deemed to have violated this policy and shall be subject to counseling and/or discipline,’ the department said.
In Watkins Glen, New York officers Robert Brill, was a member of two groups connected to violent alt-right gang the Proud Boys.
New York Police Department Officer Randy Paulsaint was a member of 13 of the including Men Going Their Own Way. In response to a post about a woman asking for a Christmas present, Paulsaint posted a gif of a man kicking a woman in the head.
But the NYPD said its investigation ‘was unable to clearly prove or disprove that the subject officer made the offending posts’.
Fired Thomas claimed he didn’t realize he was affiliated with any hate groups online and Reveal reported it could be true in some of the cases.
Facebook used to let friends add each other to groups with automatic membership but post the Cambridge Analytica scandal users must accept invites to be added.
Those investigating the hate groups found they were more likely to be exposed to hateful content in their news feeds, and suggested membership to other hate groups as a result of being added.
But Reveal noted many groups filtered out requests that were not serious by asking screening questions.
Stop Radical Islam in America – where a dozen current and former cops were members – asked ‘Why do you personally think Islam should be banned in America?’
Confederate Brothers & Sisters – with 25 current and former cops questioned: ‘This group is sometimes racist does this bother you?’
Sociologist, Peter Simi, told Reveal: ‘Leaders have long been advocating for infiltration of society — graduate from high school, go to college, join the military, become a police officer, become a school teacher — get inside the system’
Louisiana’s Angola prison guard, Geoffery Crosby, was a member of 56 extremist groups, including 45 Confederate groups and one called BAN THE NAACP.
Some officers have claimed its their First Amendment right ti speak freely on social media but the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled police can penalize employees for certain speech and behavior.
As departments are slow to take action against officers named, Megan Squire, a computer science professor from Elon University in North Carolina, told Reveal: ‘Charlottesville was planned on Facebook. Extremists are definitely using Facebook groups to plan physical, real-world events or just to make their lives a little smaller, to find friends.’
It follows a classified FBI Counterterrorism Policy Guide from April 2015, that The Intercept, reported warned far-right groups had infiltrated US police departments.
Sociologist, Peter Simi, told Reveal: ‘Leaders have long been advocating for infiltration of society — graduate from high school, go to college, join the military, become a police officer, become a school teacher — get inside the system.
‘That’s why it’s so difficult to get a handle on the scope of this, because the purpose for those who are infiltrating these systems is to be careful not to tip their hands. So we’re always dealing with the tip of the iceberg.’
Prior to last summer members could be added to groups like The Three Percenters without approving. Some cops named said they had not idea they were associated
Stop Radical Islam in America – where a dozen current and former cops were members – asked ‘Why do you personally think Islam should be banned in America?’ to screen group members
Megan Squire, a computer science professor from Elon University in North Carolina, noted how hate groups have an impact: ‘Charlottesville was planned on Facebook. Extremists are definitely using Facebook groups to plan physical, real-world events or just to make their lives a little smaller, to find friends’