Two Washington, DC, police officers were caught on video disparaging a crime victim and appearing to be acting inappropriately at a burglary scene.
Clarence Williams, 40, was robbed on August 8 at 2.32pm.
His private surveillance video not only shows a man using a rock to shatter a rear glass door but also shows the officers who came to investigate.
One officer appears to break out into a brief jig twice.
The other officer points to protein powder on the counter and says: ‘He is probably gay’ followed by laughter.
When asked why the cops would assume he was gay, Williams told DailyMail.com: ‘I guess because I am a black male, I have a nice house, I’m single, and all the expensive things that were stolen from my home, I guess I would just have to be gay right?’
Surveillance video at Clarence Williams’s house in southeast Washington, DC, shows two police officers laughing at the scene of a robbery on August 8
One of the officers can be heard saying: ‘He is probably gay’
The day after Williams found out that his house had been ransacked he watched the surveillance footage and saw the police officers’ inappropriate behavior
Officers had responded to Williams’s residence for a burglar alarm but were seen on video leaving after only checking the front door.
Williams was out of the country when he received a message from his neighbor saying that the police were in his home with K-9’s.
‘They made a comment to my neighbor, saying: “Well what do you expect. You live in Southeast”,’ Williams said. ‘As if I am not as important as the people in northwest.
‘I pay my taxes just like everyone else. Do I not deserve the same protection? I guess a fourth of the city is not worthy of being protected because robberies and burglaries are a way of life in Southeast.’
It could not be determined if the same officers responded to both calls.
Williams said that he didn’t know about the footage of the police officer until the following day because his computer was stolen.
Once he purchased a new computer, he saw the footage. He said that the officers ‘were acting as if this was a joke. This is serious. This is my life’.
The surveillance video shows the female officer dancing in the home
The female officer apologized to Williams the day after he saw the video
‘After viewing the video I called 911 and requested that an official come out that night,’ Williams said. ‘A sergeant came to my home and I played the video for her.
‘She basically tried to downplay the entire thing by saying she knew the officer, and she meant no harm.
‘She also said they see murders, killings shootings, rapes, etc. and that she was just trying to keep a good attitude in a bad situation, but that didn’t sit well with me,’ he said.
Williams then emailed the council member for his district to report what he had seen in the video.
‘Within 15 minutes I had a call from the commander and he asked me to let him try to handle it internally before i went to the media. So that’s what I did,’ he said.
The next day, the woman featured in the video came by to apologize to Williams.
‘I can tell she is truly sorry and just made a mistake. She came on her own volition no one told her to which I thought was admirable,’ he said.
Lt. Christopher Thornton told Williams that an internal investigation was underway.
Williams lives in a neighborhood that is known for rampant crime, he said
When the alarms first went off, police knocked on the door. No one answered so they left
Williams decided to go to the press when he saw that the two officers who were supposed to be on desk duty during an investigation were sitting in a cruiser outside of his home
In the following two weeks, Williams noticed an increased police presence in his neighborhood. On August 22 there was a cruiser outside of his house, so Williams went up to thank the officer for being there.
‘I go to say thank you to whomever is in the car, and it’s the same officers I was told were on desk duty,’ Williams said.
‘At that point i felt like the police were just lying to keep me quiet, so I decided to go public,’ he said.
DailyMail.com reached out to the Seventh District but it declined to comment.
DC police had earlier posted a video of the burglar breaking the door and ransacking the apartment.
The suspect, who wore blue New Balance sneakers, dark colored pants and a blue short-sleeve shirt, stole a computer, clothes and shoes from the home.
He is seen in surveillance footage changing clothes in Williams’ house.
The burglar can be seen throwing a rock through the window on Williams’s porch
The man changes his shirt and hat in the middle of the robbery but keeps socks on his hands
He allegedly got away with a computer, clothes and shoes from Williams’s home
Close-up shots of the footage were posted by the DC police to help identify the burglar
It was the second time someone had robbed Williams’ home in less than a month.
On July 17 Williams reported the loss of a 65-inch television, speakers, a Rolex watch, an iPad, and iPod, two MacBook computers, a digital camera, two backpacks, men’s cologne, an iPhone 6 and Giorgio Armani sunglasses.
‘I guess the guy is watching my home. My neighbor across the street from me has motion sensor cameras. Before the first burglary he sat on her stairs and was just watching things,’ Williams said.
‘My house was easy pickings. If someone is on the desk you cant really see them from the street.’
Williams says one of his neighbors was robbed by the same man last week. He is still at large.