8/2017 - "THE EPIDEMIC OF WHITE SUPREMACIST POLICE"
https://theappeal.org/the-epidemic-of-white-supremacist-police-4992cb7ad97a/
THE EPIDEMIC OF WHITE SUPREMACIST POLICE
Aug 2017 Article
A Worthy Read:
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"..For years national law enforcement agencies have been sounding the alarmabout white supremacists in their midst.
In 2006, the F.B.I. warned of white supremacists attempting to enter into police departments and recruit police officers. In 2009, it was the Department of Homeland Security that was letting the public and local law enforcement know of the threat to national security posed by white supremacists after the election of the first black president.
It is no secret that white supremacist groups are actively recruiting college students and former members of the military — qualifications necessary to become a police officer in D.C.
In the time that has passed since the first of these now-repeated warnings,
there has been an alarming number of police officers reported to be members of hate groups or expressing racist vitriol in texts, emails, and on social media. In 2014, three police officers of a 13-member all-white police department were discovered to be members of a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Fruitland Park, Florida.
These men were discovered because they were trying to recruit other officers to join them.
In 2015, a lieutenant in the Anniston County Police Department in Alabama was fired for being a member of the
League of the South, a southern hate group. (Another lieutenant was also a member but retired once his affiliation became publicized.)
The membership was no secret to the department when the fired lieutenant was first hired, and in fact was “the subject of friendly jokes.”
It was only once a story about his membership was highlighted by the
Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch that he was eventually fired. A Lake Arthur, Louisiana police officer was fired after a photo of him surfaced on Facebook giving a Nazi salute next to a man in a white hood in 2015.
Just last week, a different
Louisiana police officer posted a depiction of a mother drowning her daughter in a bathtub with the caption: “when your daughter’s first crush is a little negro boy.”
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Public opinion of police in American is low: one-third of white Americans do not express a favorable opinion of police, while the number is even lower when limited to African Americans.
Further, according to Cato Institute survey, “Black (31%) and Hispanic (42%) Americans are far less likely than white Americans (64%) to be highly confident their local police departments treat all racial groups equally.”
This tension threatens not only the reputation and functionality of the criminal justice system, but also the physical safety of certain communities and the very fabric of our country.
Without swift action by state and federal law enforcement to address this clear and present danger, things will only get worse.