SF police union boss investigated over social media posts

SANTA FE — The president of the Santa Fe police officer’s union is being investigated for possible violations of police department policy for highly charged posts on his personal Facebook page about the NAACP, Muslims, immigration and other topics, Santa Fe Police Chief Patrick Gallagher confirmed Monday.

Gallagher said a reporter with the Santa Fe Reporter weekly newspaper called him Monday morning to ask what he thought about memes Sgt. Troy Baker, head of the Santa Fe Police Officers Association, had posted as far back as 2015.

Gallagher said he asked for an internal affairs investigation of Baker after seeing screenshots of the posts. “Do these posts violate the rules governing off-duty conduct? That’s why we started to investigate,” Gallagher said.

The posts could not be found on Baker’s page Monday evening, but the Reporter posted screenshots of the memes to its own website. One Baker post from July 11, 2015, that has a Confederate flag flying in the background reads: “Now lets eliminate the N.A.A.C.P. which in name alone is racist as is its purpose! There is no room in this country for a separate race to have a membership where holding an office requires that you be black.”

A meme from July 30 said, “Hillary had the mothers of a bunch of thugs speak at the DNC. Didn’t see any fathers tho.” The mothers of African-Americans who were gunned down by police, died in police custody or were killed by gun violence — including the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner — spoke at the Democratic National Convention last summer.

Other posts are aimed at Islam and refugees from mostly Islamic countries. “Let’s discuss what Islam has to offer,” a post from Oct. 27, 2015 says, before listing things like rape, beheadings, female genital mutilation, oppression of women and “paedophilia.”

A meme Baker posted Feb. 1 read, “All lives splatter. Nobody cares about your protest. Moral of the story ... stay off the road!!” The post is a play on the banner of the Black Lives Matter movement and appears to refer to a recent legislative proposals in North Dakota, where protesters have tried to block construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, and elsewhere that would provide legal protection to drivers who run over protesters blocking the road.

Gallagher said that while Baker has the right to free speech, the views expressed in the Facebook memes should not be considered reflective of the views of other officers.

“This does not in any way represent the position of the Santa Fe Police Department,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher said Baker has not been placed on leave pending the investigation. Baker did not return a phone call to his cellphone late Monday.

Baker and officer Steve Cosban were fired by then-Police Chief Ray Rael in July 2011 after Rael contended that they falsified reports of a take-down of a man they arrested in a Wal-Mart parking lot in March 2010. That decision was overturned by an arbitrator five months later and Baker instead served a three-week suspension for violating arrest and use-of-force procedures.