5 Ft. Lauderdale Cops No Longer On Force Due To Racist Text Messages

Hat tip to Gronda.

ALERT: This article contains racial and other slurs that were used in text messages

Priscilla Perez was engaged to 22-year old Alex Alvarez. Alvarez was a police officer in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. They are no longer engaged. Priscilla and Alex had an agreement to check each others cell phones to make sure that neither were behaving badly. Priscilla wanted out of the relationship and in October 2014, she called the police for a domestic disturbance. Alex put on his police uniform. Priscilla was afraid of retribution, so she acted first, sending an email to Police Chief Frank Adderly saying there were racists in his outfit.   That prompted an internal affairs investigation.

In late January, Alvarez resigned before the investigation was completed and before he had to make a sworn statement about the allegations. The investigation also involved 3 other officers who last week, were terminated from their positions.

Screenshot of Fort Lauderdale cop Alex Alvarez’s video.

Priscilla sent screen shots of text messages between the four police officers and gave a sworn statement to internal affairs outlining Alvarez’s racist views against Blacks. The texts are alleged to have been sent while the officers were on duty. There is also a video in the investigation, allegedly made by Alvarez. The video, titled “The Hoods” uses the likenesses of his fellow officers (called “Savage Hunters”) cut with images of KKK hoods, vicious dogs, slave holders, blood, and President Obama with a mouth full of gold grills, pointedly calling the president a “n****er.”

Along with Alex Alvarez, Jason Holding, 31, James Wells, 30, and Christopher Sousa, 25 were investigated.  All four of the officers worked in predominantly black neighborhoods.

According to The Broward Palm Beach New Times:

“Their text messages include constant use of the word “n***er*,” including at least one mention of “killing n***ers.” Also shared among the group was a video – apparently created by Alvarez – of a mock movie trailer that described President Barack Obama with racial slurs as a movie villain who had to be stopped by “savage hunters.” The video goes on to show images of black people getting attacked by dogs and gun-toting white people.”

In addition to bigoted racist statements about Blacks, they also texted about homosexuals and coworkers. Wells texted the words “niggers” and “nigger lover” dismissively. He taunted Alvarez by calling him a “faggot” and called some of his coworkers “retarded brown.”

Holding texted about a “mudshark” — a derogatory reference to a white woman dating a black man.  He said the other cops called him this because he was dating a black Haitian-American woman. He said it was teasing, and “all in good fun.”  Holding once texted to Alvarez and Wells, after they’d been looking for some suspects who’d fled, “I had a wet dream that you two found those niggers in the VW and gave them the death penalty right there on the spot.”

The Investigation Report states:

“Officers Alvarez, Holding, Wells, and Sousa’s conduct is likely to have a negative impact on their interactions with the community and their coworkers as well as negatively impact their credibility in official proceedings.”

Their Defense?

When they were confronted by investigators, three of the officers suggested that the video was a regrettable attempt at humor, and that their use of the word “n***er” was not reflective of their true feelings about African-Americans.”

Wow! Have I heard that before. In fact, I heard it from several White Supremacist cyber-extortionists who use derogatory name-calling and words as if it’s their first language.  When their calling people “niggers” “retards” and monkeys were exposed on this blog, their defense is that were mocking the individual(s) — it was intended as a joke; humor; satire.

Make no mistake. Derogatory terms aimed at minority groups are not a joke. Mocking is a form of harassment and using specific terms elevates it from mere harassment to racial harassment.