A San Francisco Bay Area city council is undertaking an audit of its troubled police department, the latest development in a year-long federal investigation of the Antioch Police Department that blew up this month with the disclosure of racist and hostile text messages sent by officers.
Angry residents crowded City Hall on Tuesday evening as the Antioch City Council unanimously approved audits of the department’s internal affairs unit, its hiring and promotional practices and of department culture. Officials have named 17 officers who sent text messages, including the president of the Antioch police union, although Contra Costa County’s public defender said that nearly half of the 100-officer department was included in the text chains.
Defense attorney Ellen McDonnell has asked District Attorney Diana Becton to dismiss all cases involving the public defender’s office and Antioch police. Becton said she is reviewing cases for potential dismissal or resentencing. It’s unclear how many cases are at stake.
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“The public simply cannot have trust or confidence in any criminal prosecution involving the Antioch Police Department,” McDonnell said in an email Wednesday. “No one should be charged with a crime based on the report of a police department so thoroughly riddled with corruption.”
The incendiary text messages, which were heavily redacted, contain derogatory, racist, homophobic and sexually explicit language. Officers brag about making up evidence and beating up suspects. They refer to women as water buffalo, share photos of gorillas, freely use racial slurs and make light of the police killing of George Floyd in 2020.
In September 2020, two officers agreed by text to write a large number of traffic citations by targeting a specific group in a specific area. A male officer referred to Black people by a racist slur and said authorities should make them “eat s—.” A female…
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