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Newly released bigoted texts from San Francisco police call cases into question
Source: The Guardian
Newly released bigoted texts from San Francisco police call cases into question
Channing Joseph in San Francisco
Wednesday 27 April 2016 00.02 BST
Widening a scandal that has marred San Francisco’s reputation as one of America’s most liberal cities, the city’s public defender said Tuesday that a newly released series of text messages exchanged by three police officers in 2014 and 2015 will force city officials to take a second look at more than 200 criminal cases, including three murders.
In the more than 100 new text messages made public on Tuesday, one of the former officers, Jason Lai, repeatedly used racist, homophobic and transphobic slurs like “nigga”, “fag” and “tranny” to refer to San Francisco residents. He also makes offensive remarks about president Barack Obama and NBA player LeBron James.
“Do you know what Obama coffee is?” Lai wrote in an apparent joke. “Black and weak!”
In one message, Lai wrote: “Indian people are disgusting.” In another, he said of black people: “They are like a pack of animals on the loose.”
In addition to Lai, two other officers, Curtis Liu and Keith Ybarreta, are also named in the scandal, which will now force officials to reevaluate the evidence presented in a total of 207 criminal cases, ranging from misdemeanor drug possession to murder.
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Channing Joseph in San Francisco
Wednesday 27 April 2016 00.02 BST
Widening a scandal that has marred San Francisco’s reputation as one of America’s most liberal cities, the city’s public defender said Tuesday that a newly released series of text messages exchanged by three police officers in 2014 and 2015 will force city officials to take a second look at more than 200 criminal cases, including three murders.
In the more than 100 new text messages made public on Tuesday, one of the former officers, Jason Lai, repeatedly used racist, homophobic and transphobic slurs like “nigga”, “fag” and “tranny” to refer to San Francisco residents. He also makes offensive remarks about president Barack Obama and NBA player LeBron James.
“Do you know what Obama coffee is?” Lai wrote in an apparent joke. “Black and weak!”
In one message, Lai wrote: “Indian people are disgusting.” In another, he said of black people: “They are like a pack of animals on the loose.”
In addition to Lai, two other officers, Curtis Liu and Keith Ybarreta, are also named in the scandal, which will now force officials to reevaluate the evidence presented in a total of 207 criminal cases, ranging from misdemeanor drug possession to murder.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/26/san-francisco-police-officers-racist-text-messages-jason-lai
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