The Chicago Police Department is under investigation by the Police District Council after racist tweets from a CPD detective were revealed.
According to Fox 32 News, members of the newly formed Police District Council condemned the lack of disciplinary action against CPD officers who posted racist comments on X, formerly known as Twitter and Facebook. Detective Shawn Popow used the screen name Südliche Polizei to call Black people “ghetto mutts,” “animals” and “subhuman savages” on social media platforms.
Popow also posted violent images of a Black man being beaten by a white supremacist in the film, “American History X.”
The PDC is calling for Superintendent Larry Snelling to fire any police officers involved with “biased ideologies.”
“We direct our call to Superintendent Larry Snelling, urging him to honor his commitment to eradicating racism within the Chicago Police Department,” said the PDC members. “The promise to remove officers who perpetuate biased ideologies is a critical step towards cultivating a more inclusive and respectful work environment.”
Snelling — who is Black — became the Superintendent in September and said he wanted to “bridge this gap” between the community and the police.
According to People’s Fabric, comments found on Powpow’s social media also included him calling Black people “subhuman wretches,” “rats” and “parasites.”
One of his disturbing posts included a screenshot from the film “American History X,” where a skinhead murders a Black man by stomping on his head on a curb. Popow captioned the post, “I bet yo mama could press your face into dough and make gorilla cookies,” with a laughing-crying emoji. He also posted images on Twitter that read, “Stupid Ass N—r Award.”
The detective also posted media referring to a Black person fighting as “a chimpout.” He included a description that read, “An aggressive and violent outburst by a black person, such as tantrums of chimpanzees or baboons straight out of National Geographic’s nature shows. O.J. really did chimp out with Nicole by slashing her throat.”
Popow also shared a meme with the text, “Truth is the Black experiment has failed. Not
because of white culture, or white privilege, or white racism. The fundamental problem is
that American black culture has evolved into an un-fixable and crime-ridden mess.”
The text went on to blame Black people for expecting “others to tolerate their
violence and amoral behavior” and calling Black people “socially incompatible with other
races by their own design.”
“They don’t understand that white people aren’t out to get black people; they are just exhausted with them.” He also wrote that the “ghetto” was a “self-cleaning oven” and celebrated the police killing Black men by sharing a video of several officers killing a man by shooting him as he sat inside a vehicle.
“Any time police face a deadly force incident, it should 100 end like this… FAFO should be the CPD motto.”
Popow also shared a meme of a Black man inside a casket with the caption, “The face you make when you don’t understand what stop resisting means.” He was promoted to a CPD detective in 2022 and works mainly on the South Side of Chicago, from Kenwood to Chicago Lawn. While still an officer in 2018, Popow posted a selfie of him and his partner from his squad car and tagged pop star Ariana Grande.
At least 13 complaints were lodged against the CPD detective over the length of his career, but none of them have resulted in disciplinary action. His posts also include transphobic comments and are currently being investigated by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
Notably, the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) voted on Nov. 13 to pass a new policy that prohibits CPD officers from being members of hate groups such as the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys.
