A Chicago Police SUV – Photo: Jason Lawrence, via Wikimedia.
The Chicago Police Department is launching an internal investigation into whether a series of racist, homophobic posts posted to a message board on the anonymous imageboard website 4chan were authored by an officer employed by the department.
In the posts, the author, who claims to be a military veteran and Chicago beat cop who previously worked in the Rogers Park and Chicago Lawn police districts, bragged about racially profiling people and being involved in two on-duty shootings.
Like all other users on the site, the anonymous poster is only identified by a serial number.
The author in question began posting on Aug. 3, starting a thread that solicited and answered users’ questions and posting a photo of a shirt with a police patch. In the thread, the author used slurs for Mexican and gay men and blamed the city’s violent crime solely on Black people, reports Chicago-based FOX affiliate WFLD.
The person claims to have voted for Trump three times in the 2020 election because “Chicago has a relaxed voting system.” The officer also appeared to advocate for armed insurrection, claiming that American cities “are not worth fighting for.”
“I’ll leave here and shoulder a rifle in the woods if it ever comes to that,” the user wrote.
That same user started a new thread on Tuesday asking for more questions, this time including a photo of an obscured police ID and a gay slur in the title. Asked about racial profiling, the user replied: “I don’t pull over anyone white.”
The user also cited an interracial kiss as “the most serious crime” they overlooked while on the job, using the n-word in the response.
The user’s postings were brought to the department’s attention after someone reached out to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability on Monday to complain about the incendiary postings.
Jennifer Rottner, a spokeswoman for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, said the agency received the complaint and forwarded it to the police department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs.
Maggie Huynh, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department, confirmed that an investigation has been opened, but would not comment further.
The 4chan message boards have become widely regarded by many as a breeding ground for racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and other forms of political extremism. The website was used to launch the QAnon conspiracy theory, which claims that former President Donald Trump is a Christlike figure battling a “deep state” and a cabal of Democratic pedophiles. The theory is based on assertions made in postings from an alleged federal employee with conservative sympathies, who claimed to have inside knowledge of political machinations at the highest levels of government — casting Trump, of course, as righteous and standing up for ordinary Americans and anyone opposed to Trump’s political agenda as evil.
In addition to racist and homophobic comments, the alleged Chicago police office also echoed grievances common among many police, as well as among political conservatives, taking aim at Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, both of whom are Black women in positions of power who are perceived as being on the left wing of the Democratic Party and have embraced a more skeptical view of law enforcement and police accountability. Foxx, in particular, became a target of harsh criticisms stemming from her office’s alleged mishandling of the Jussie Smollett case.
“I hope the department knows I am posting here,” the user wrote. “You can tell [the] mayor … she is an abomination and the destroyer of a world [class] town.”
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George Levin, of Chicago, was found tied up in his home on Sunday, January 26. He had been bound with duct tape and electrical cords and gagged with a sock in his mouth, reported the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Chicago Police Department identified two suspects -- Geiderwuin Bello Morales, 21, an Ecuadorian national, and Jefferson Ubilla-Delgado, 29, a Venezuelan national -- and charged them with one felony count of first-degree murder and one felony count of robbery against a victim over 60 years old.
A lesbian police officer will receive $750,000 as part of an agreement to settle a lawsuit she filed in 2022 alleging that she was sexually harassed, discriminated against, and subjected to a hostile work environment.
Constance Crea, who was hired as a police officer for the Township of Piscataway, New Jersey, in 1996, alleged that former Police Chief Thomas Mosier and other officers made repeated sexist and homophobic remarks toward her and other female colleagues.
In her lawsuit, Crea, who was promoted to lieutenant in 2019, claimed Mosier had "engaged in a pattern and practice of behavior of sexual harassment, discrimination, hostile work environment, preferential treatment and failing to comply with his own policies." In 2011, when she was promoted to sergeant, Mosier was her direct supervisor and allegedly told her that he didn't want to see her promoted.
A Virginia man has been arrested and accused of setting at least three fires outside the entrances of restaurants along 23rd Street South, including Freddie's Beach Bar, Northern Virginia's sole LGBTQ establishment.
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The Chicago Police Department is launching an internal investigation into whether a series of racist, homophobic posts posted to a message board on the anonymous imageboard website 4chan were authored by an officer employed by the department.
In the posts, the author, who claims to be a military veteran and Chicago beat cop who previously worked in the Rogers Park and Chicago Lawn police districts, bragged about racially profiling people and being involved in two on-duty shootings.
Like all other users on the site, the anonymous poster is only identified by a serial number.
The author in question began posting on Aug. 3, starting a thread that solicited and answered users’ questions and posting a photo of a shirt with a police patch. In the thread, the author used slurs for Mexican and gay men and blamed the city’s violent crime solely on Black people, reports Chicago-based FOX affiliate WFLD.
The person claims to have voted for Trump three times in the 2020 election because “Chicago has a relaxed voting system.” The officer also appeared to advocate for armed insurrection, claiming that American cities “are not worth fighting for.”
“I’ll leave here and shoulder a rifle in the woods if it ever comes to that,” the user wrote.
That same user started a new thread on Tuesday asking for more questions, this time including a photo of an obscured police ID and a gay slur in the title. Asked about racial profiling, the user replied: “I don’t pull over anyone white.”
The user also cited an interracial kiss as “the most serious crime” they overlooked while on the job, using the n-word in the response.
The user’s postings were brought to the department’s attention after someone reached out to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability on Monday to complain about the incendiary postings.
Jennifer Rottner, a spokeswoman for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, said the agency received the complaint and forwarded it to the police department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs.
Maggie Huynh, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department, confirmed that an investigation has been opened, but would not comment further.
The 4chan message boards have become widely regarded by many as a breeding ground for racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and other forms of political extremism. The website was used to launch the QAnon conspiracy theory, which claims that former President Donald Trump is a Christlike figure battling a “deep state” and a cabal of Democratic pedophiles. The theory is based on assertions made in postings from an alleged federal employee with conservative sympathies, who claimed to have inside knowledge of political machinations at the highest levels of government — casting Trump, of course, as righteous and standing up for ordinary Americans and anyone opposed to Trump’s political agenda as evil.
In addition to racist and homophobic comments, the alleged Chicago police office also echoed grievances common among many police, as well as among political conservatives, taking aim at Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, both of whom are Black women in positions of power who are perceived as being on the left wing of the Democratic Party and have embraced a more skeptical view of law enforcement and police accountability. Foxx, in particular, became a target of harsh criticisms stemming from her office’s alleged mishandling of the Jussie Smollett case.
“I hope the department knows I am posting here,” the user wrote. “You can tell [the] mayor … she is an abomination and the destroyer of a world [class] town.”
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