It started as an investigation into an officer-related car crash.
But when officials began examining the texts sent that day between officers in Monmouth County, New Jersey, they came across something much more troubling.
“Next I’ll be cleaning the floors or some sh– like I’m the f—ing hired ni—r or something,” an officer from the Marlboro Township (N.J.) Police Department texted.
After an officer from Freehold Township, New Jersey, texted racial slurs about the Black community, another officer from the same department responded: “I’m not racist. I hate everyone. If anything, Jews is one ‘race’ I hate. I don’t have a problem with Black people. They make there (sic) own problems and names.”
“One message that stands out the most is the one that says I hate ‘n’ words,” said Harrison Dillard, president of the NAACP in Hunterdon County, N.J. “It doesn’t say ‘n’ words, it says the word. There’s no ambiguity there.”
Another message referred to Asians in a derogatory fashion.
“Look at that g—k,” the text read.
According to WABC-TV in New York, one Marlboro officer was fired because of the text he sent. There’s no record of any formal disciplinary action against the other three officers involved and at least one is still on the job, the station reports.
The two officers involved from Freehold Township resigned from the department in good standing.
“We can’t see the heart of everybody and every officer as they’re going through the hiring process,” Dillard said. “These officers showed us their hearts, they showed us what they think of people of color.”
Dillard and multiple members of the NAACP met in December 2022 with Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond Santiago. But nothing came of it, he said.
A former cop himself, Dillard said investigators should’ve looked into the officers’ previous on-duty interactions.
“Every officer should have been held accountable, and their records should have been reviewed to see if they have disparately arrested people, pulled people over, using force against people,” he said. “Whatever they did in their line of duty should have been examined.”
“We have to police without bias, we have to serve all communities equally,” he said.
Former Southern District of New York Prosecutor David Miller told WABC the officers’ conduct could call their integrity into question, jeopardizing other cases.
“If we rely sometimes on officers to swear out affidavits as to facts that occurred in support of an arrest or in support of a search warrant, if now those officers’ credibility could be challenged and they’re the sole source of the facts, there could be questions about the integrity of the process,” Miller said.
In a statement, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office said allegations of racism are “taken extremely seriously and investigated in a thorough manner.”
“This Office is dedicated to ensuring that those who reside in or visit Monmouth County, are policed only by law enforcement officers who treat everyone they encounter in a fair, unbiased, and impartial manner,” the statement continued. “Moreover, if allegations of conduct rise to the level of criminality, the appropriate charges are lodged and those individuals are prosecuted. If no crime has occurred, an internal affairs investigation is commenced in order to determine if administrative findings can be established. Rest assured, this is the process that takes place when faced with any and all allegations.”
In a post on X, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump asked, “How can justice prevail when behavior like this is occurring in law enforcement?”
