Here’s one - oops, sorry, it’s the Governor of Virginia. Nothing to see here.
Posted on 06/20/2019 7:46:33 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
The Philadelphia Police Department has pulled 72 officers off their regular duties as authorities investigate inflammatory social media posts revealed in a database that found thousands of offensive postings by current and former officers, the city's police commissioner said Wednesday.
Police officials in Philadelphia are describing the action as the largest removal of officers from the street in recent memory.
"We are equally as disgusted by many of the posts that you saw and in many cases, the rest of the nation saw," said Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross.
It is the latest fallout since the advocacy group The Plain View Project earlier this month released thousands of Facebook posts and comments by current and former police officers that range from racist memes, to posts celebrating violence and messages containing Islamophobic themes, among other offensive material.
Since the data dump, internal affairs officials in police departments including Phoenix, St. Louis and Dallas are probing whether the distasteful and sometimes violent material should warrant disciplinary action or terminations.
In Philadelphia, Ross said Wednesday that at least "several dozen" of the 72 officers now on desk duty will be disciplined and others will be fired, but he did not provide specifics, including any of the names of those who have been taken off their regular duties.
"We've talked about from the outset how disturbing, how disappointing and upsetting these posts are," Ross told reporters at the police department's headquarters. "They will undeniably impact police-community relations."
David Rudovsky, a longtime Philadelphia civil rights lawyer who focuses on police misconduct, called the decision to place 72 officers on desk duty "significant," saying the social media posts appear to show conduct that is inconsistent with the department's promise of fair and equal treatment for all residents.
"More important will be the future decisions regarding sanctions or other measures to deal with this widespread problem in the police department," Rudovsky said.
Philadelphia criminal defense lawyer Paul Hetznecker agreed that the Facebook message scandal is a fresh reminder of an issue that has long plagued city law enforcement.
"We're all aware of it," Hetznecker said. "There's not anyone who has been connected to the criminal justice system in Philadelphia who isn't aware of the underlining problems of implicit bias and explicit bias that these posts reflect that have existed for a long, long time, for decades."
The research project tracking officers' use of social media flagged offensive material posted by about 2,900 current officers, some in supervisor roles, and posts by hundreds of former police officers across eight police departments.
ETC...
The Plain View Project is a database of public Facebook posts and comments made by current and former police officers from several jurisdictions across the United States.
We present these posts and comments because we believe that they could undermine public trust and confidence in our police. In our view, people who are subject to decisions made by law enforcement may fairly question whether these online statements about race, religion, ethnicity and the acceptability of violent policing—among other topics—inform officers’ on-the-job behaviors and choices.
To be clear, our concern is not whether these posts and comments are protected by the First Amendment. Rather, we believe that because fairness, equal treatment, and integrity are essential to the legitimacy of policing, these posts and comments should be part of a national dialogue about police.
Sounds like Philly has too many white cops. Must clean house.
Ping!
This’ll help with the crime problem.
L
Breaking news, Philadelphia street cops are insensitive.
Cops take a bashing here, but the Orwell quote about sleeping peacefully in the night because rough men will do violence on your behalf comes to mind.
Soldiers, Cops, Firefighters, and others have a rough and raunchy sense of humor.
People need to grow up and accept that and lose that feminine fantasy of pious, gentle, sensitive men, who were just like daddy and dutifully do these jobs as their cross to bear.
“distasteful and sometimes violent material”
“Material” cannot be “violent” by definition.
Big Bro is watching........................
Best to avoid Facebook and all social media.
Did the material go out and strike someone on the head causing them to bleed?
If not, fix the language usage so that it is not intentionally and misleadingly inflammatory.
Here’s one - oops, sorry, it’s the Governor of Virginia. Nothing to see here.
Madonna did get one thing right. Life was better before the smart phone.
Does Free Republic count as Social Media ?
Minority communities -- would those be the Italians, Poles, Scots and Irish who still live in Philly?
Did they announce they were supporting Trump?
So much for freedom of speech.
Lessons Learned:
1) Stay the hell off of social media. It can quite literally be a career killer.
2) These guys have been paying union dues WHY, exactly??
“our concern is not whether these posts and comments are protected by the First Amendment.”
They better get “concerned.”
.
I agree about staying off Social Media.
But even posting the truth about teen crime would reflect “badly” on blacks. And we can’t have that, now can we?
Socially commenting on the affairs of your city? That’s a firing.
What a nasty whiny website. I scrolled through their galleries and almost all their examples were cops celebrating a bad guy getting hurt when they got caught, fuming about antifa types, angry about the animals that murder and attack innocent people. One was about an 18 year old that blindsided an innocent girl in a Walmart baseball bat knock out game.
The cop said he should have been shot down like a dog.
This is a steaming pantload of a website.
As their final gift, it was one of those sites that won’t let you back out of it. Locked me in.
Sure do hope they never start looking at truck drivers and prison guards.
LOL, you got that right. I know a few of both...
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