Racist posts linked to officers exposed

Officials vow firings, reviews of cases of anyone found to have made remarks

A series of bigoted and antiMuslim Facebook posts linked to a group of retired and active San Jose Police Department officers has been met with swift rebukes from officials and civil rights advocates, including calls for their firings and a top-down review of cases in which they testified in court.

The private group — called 107ODSJ, a reference to the police code for “off duty” — was the subject of an article posted Friday to Medium, an online platform.

The author, identified only as the partner of a Bay Area police officer, said the piece was motivated in part by allegations that a similar Facebook group plotted violence against Shaun King, an activist and journalist involved in the Black Lives Matter movement. A retired San Jose police sergeant, the author said, is a member of both groups.

“I recognized some of the names,” the author said in a phone interview Friday. “Is this the entire police department? No, it’s not. But within the entire police department, people know about it.”

San Jose police say four active officers identified as making offensive posts in the group, which has since been taken down, have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. Chief Eddie Garcia also has called for the assistance of the FBI, which already was probing the group that targeted King.

“Although I’m disappointed in the way this has come out, if there is one positive thing through this, it is that it has come to light,” Garcia said, and that officers engaging in racist acts “cannot hide anymore.”

Members of the 10-7ODSJ group shared posts about the Black Lives Matter movement, including one current officer commenting that “black lives don’t really matter” on a public Facebook post from a retired officer about shootings in Chicago, according to the article.

That same current officer was one of several to make anti-mus

lim comments on a post inside the group about a Muslim woman whose hijab was pulled off by a Ventura County Sheriff’s Office deputy. “Hell, I would have pulled it over her face,” he wrote.

One retired officer wrote, “If your (sic) incarcerated you don’t get to wear your religious outfits.” Another suggested using hijabs as nooses, adding a smiling emoji.

Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the Council on American-islamic Relations, San Francisco Bay Area, said that sort of Islamophobic sentiment is concerning no matter who write sit and is“even more terrifying” coming from police officers.

“How are we supposed to be able to call on these officers to protect our community when this is what they say when they feel as though they are around their peers?” Billoo said Saturday. “I worry that this is not just a few bad officers and this is not just a few bad posts — I’m concerned that other officers knew about these posts and looked the other way.”

The Medium article noted several other instances of 10-7ODSJ members making racist comments, including the degradation of an area of San Jose largely populated by Latino and Vietnamese people.

“No one who expresses these types of disgusting, racist comments should ever wear a badge,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement Friday. “This Office’s Conviction Integrity Unit will immediately begin a comprehensive review of every case in which these officers — active or retired — played a role. Anyone who writes this kind of trash has no role in our criminal justice system.”

Garcia also vowed to terminate officers involved in the group if they’re confirmed as the authors of the posts.

“I will move to fire people,” the police chief said in an interview. “You cannot say this publicly. You cannot say this quietly.”

In a statement, San Jose Police Officers Association President Paul Kelly said the union will take steps to remove from its ranks retired or current officers who were part of the 10-7ODSJ group. The union, he added, will not provide legal or financial support to any officers who are ultimately charged with wrongdoing by the Police Department.

“I am announcing tonight that I am taking swift action against any member of the SJPOA that has participated in this online ring of hate because there is zero room in our department or our profession for racists, bigots or those that enable them,” Kelly said Friday.

“These are initial steps; more will follow in the coming days,” he continued. “To the community we serve, we are sincerely sorry, and our actions must rise to meet this terrible stain on our profession.”

Mayor Sam Liccardo called for a “full investigation” and said he expected any current officer who made “racist, anti-muslim or menacing comments” to be terminated.

“Our Chief fired an officer for tweeting a similar statement in 2016, but an unaccountable arbitrator — immune from public or court review — reversed the termination, and forced the department to reinstate the officer,” said Liccardo, referring to Officer Phil White, who was terminated for a combative Black Lives Matter tweet but was later reinstated.

“I will push for changes to a disciplinary process that allows unaccountable arbitrators to reverse termination decisions of the Chief, and I will further push for independent investigation of all racially discriminatory conduct,” he continued.

A retired San Jose sergeant allegedly involved in both the 10-7ODSJ group

and the one that plotted violence against King had until last week worked as a part-time officer in the Tracy Police Department.

In a statement Thursday, Tracy police said that the officer is “no longer conducting work” for the department and that he “was immediately relieved of duty pending an investigation.” Tracy police did not name the officer, but he has been identified as retired San Jose police Sgt. Billy Dishman.

Raj Jayadev of Silicon Valley De-bug said the 107ODSJ group exposed the need for a deeper set of reforms, including the diversion of funds from the Police Department to community programs.

“Off the top, every case these officers have been involved in must be reopened and reinvestigated. Second, active officers need to be immediately removed,” Jayadev said.

“And the reality is, this hate-filled racism is just what happened to be found in that Facebook group,” he continued. “The city can’t solve this by creating a new office to study the racism, or removing the ‘bad apples.’ Through this post, we now have confirmation that the SJPD has been a haven for current and former racists — generational institutional racism. This is why the community has called for defunding the police.”

The author of the Medium article, meanwhile, was not satisfied by the rebukes and calls for firings. The department needs to do more to address “systemic racism” within its ranks, the author said, citing as one example the lawsuit Officer Nabil Haidar filed in 2018. Haidar, a Lebanese-american, alleged he was subjected to Islamophobic harassment, discrimination and retaliation because of his race, national origin and religion.

The author said the department also needs to promote more officers of color.

“Them taking action is not the end of the process,” the author said. “It’s only the beginning.”