A veteran Chicago police detective faces termination after posting hundreds of offensive comments on social media that targeted Blacks, Muslims, immigrants, and LGBTQ people over five years until his actions were uncovered by a watchdog group.
Shawn Popow, a 20-year employee with the Chicago Police Department, found himself in hot water last November when he was notified by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, or COPA, which had been monitoring his online activities since 2018 after Popow began posting incendiary content on his Facebook and Twitter accounts.
When COPA personnel confronted Popow with the evidence, he denied holding any racist or bigoted beliefs and attributed his inability to recall some of the posts to memory problems stemming from a medical condition.
Now, a year after the scandal surfaced, Chicago PD Superintendent Larry Snelling, who is Black, issued a letter this week indicating that he is in the process of firing Popow, though the officer had not been officially dismissed yet, according to multiple news reports.
Previously, COPA issued a 36-page report on Popow’s vitriol on social media, where he regularly expressed racial hatred and extremist views on gender issues but did so while using the pseudonyms “SüdlichePolizei” and “@SheepdogCPD,” believing he wouldn’t be easily identifiable.
An investigation was launched when a writer from a website focused on politics and policing on the city’s Northwest Side submitted a complaint to COPA.
Popow’s shocking comments were racist to the core.
Whenever referring to Black people, he would use terms such as “worthless ghetto mutts,” “gorilla cookies,” “Stupid Ass N—r Award,” and would describe two Black people fighting as “a chimpout.”
In one of his most misguided posts, Popow wrote: “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,” he wrote, referring to the phrase “F— Around and Find Out,” which is often used to imply that if someone engages in reckless or confrontational behavior, they will face serious consequences.
Despite making these offensive comments, Popow was still promoted to detective in 2022 and assigned to work in areas like Kenwood and Chicago Lawn on Chicago’s South Side.
In 2018, while still an officer, Popow shared a selfie with his partner from inside their squad car, tagging pop star Ariana Grande. While the post was intended to be playful, with both officers mimicking Ariana Grande’s signature look of high ponytails and raised eyebrows, it later added to the troubling narrative surrounding Popow’s offensive commentary on social media.
His offensive posts were eventually exposed by a watchdog group, leading to calls for his termination amid growing scrutiny of his conduct as a police officer.
The COPA report, by itself, contained screenshots of at least 20 offensive posts on X, including an image Popow admitted to creating, which depicted a Black man in a coffin with the caption: “THAT FACE YOU MAKE WHEN YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT ‘STOP RESISTING’ MEANS.”
In this particular case, Popow said the meme was “intended to point out the potentially fatal consequences of not obeying lawful police orders,” according to COPA.
“Det. Popow’s flagrant disregard for CPD policies, as well as the nature of the posts and the frequency with which he posted them, all suggest he was expressing his true views,” the COPA report states. “Det. Popow’s posts disparage the same protected classes he took an oath to protect and serve, including African Americans, migrants, Muslims, the LGBTQ+ community and people who are disabled. Through his use of social media, Det. Popow has demonstrated that he is unable to treat all Chicago citizens with fairness and equity.”
Atlanta Black Star reported on Popow’s fall from grace in November 2023 when the allegations first came to light, resulting in an investigation into the detective’s online activities.
At the time, Chief Snelling came under immediate pressure to fire any officers involved and others who harbored “biased ideologies.” However, his options were limited by internal discipline protocols, and Popow has been on desk duty ever since.
When questioned by investigators, Popow explained that his online handle “südlche polizei” means “southern police” in German, a name he chose due to his German heritage and his work on the South Side. He also revealed that “sheepdog” is a popular nickname for police officers.
Popow’s Facebook account was found under the name “Shaun Papow,” a homophone of his real first name, Shawn.
