Facebook hate group investigation reveals 400 police officers, including NYPD cops, to be members

[longtimelurker]

Done in two.

[gracchus]

From the rest of the Twitter thread, it looks like he’s a prisoner rather than a guard. Although I’m sure there are plenty of prison guards in the U.S. who’ve thrown in their lot with their Aryan Brotherhood “charges”.

A jailbird and a Nazi – what a catch! The ladies of Dallas must be swiping right on Alan like crazy.

[cannibalpeas]

Thanks for the explainer. Sounds about as effective as all other Facebook initiatives to control the golem they’ve built.

Still, even 400 exposed is better than 0.

[anon61221983]

[Arduenn]

Watch one of them lie through his teeth on national television (july 15, 2019)

[Shuck]

The irony is that this wasn’t a Facebook initiative, but was made possible because Facebook was, at the time, willing to freely make publicly available the membership lists to even private groups. I.e. violate the privacy of their users.

(I only skimmed the article, and it’s also unclear to me how many of the verified 400 were part of groups that the investigators actually managed to join themselves - i.e. whether the 400 represent an even smaller subset of the subset, etc.)

[Tim_Carpenter]

We will never address institutional racism/sexism/homophobia if we don’t get deadly serious about aggressively removing racists/sexists/homophobes from our institutions. Removing those who have outed themselves as such should be a no-brainer, it’s not even a 1st amendment or due process issue for me, when innocent marginalized people continue to be at the mercy of this insane meat grinder we’ve created.

[Roy_Brander]

I can still get all fist-clenchy just thinking back on my time reading “I Can’t Breathe”, which I had to put down every half-hour or so to cool off.

But.

I recall there are something like 35,000 cops in New York alone? These cops come from a total of how many cops from many cities? Because if it’s 400 out of 80,000, that’s 0.5%. I’m not saying it’s good, I’m saying this may well be about the same percentage as, say, payroll accountants, are in hate groups.

If it’s the same percentage as most other occupations, that’s not surprising but still disappointing of course. They’re supposed to be “New York’s Finest”, and all that. But we kind of knew they were about the same character as regular citizens already.

[gatto]

@Shuck

were part of groups that the investigators actually managed to join themselves -

yeah. they said at least some of the groups required answering racist questionnaires to join.

rather than giving the expected answers they simply said they were interested in learning more. ( and they used their real facebook accounts! )

tl. they weren’t allowed in to all the groups they tried to join.

[tsath]

My favorite tune starts with the notes A-C-A-B

[knoxblox]

@Roy_Brander

But.

I recall there are something like 35,000 cops in New York alone? These cops come from a total of how many cops from many cities? Because if it’s 400 out of 80,000, that’s 0.5%. I’m not saying it’s good, I’m saying this may well be about the same percentage as, say, payroll accountants, are in hate groups.

But also realize this percentage is only cops who are sticking their necks out. There’s no telling how many racist cops are determined to keep a low profile, because this is why they keep a low profile…

[Wanderfound]

@Roy_Brander

I recall there are something like 35,000 cops in New York alone? These cops come from a total of how many cops from many cities? Because if it’s 400 out of 80,000, that’s 0.5%. I’m not saying it’s good, I’m saying this may well be about the same percentage as, say, payroll accountants, are in hate groups.

Spotlight: In A Study of Cops’ Facebook Accounts, 1 in 5 Had Posted Racist,...

The Plain View Project looked at the accounts of about 2,900 current officers and 800 retired officers. Hoerner and Tulsky reported that “the project sought to compile posts, comments, and other public activity that could undermine public trust in the police and reinforce the views of critics, especially in minority communities, that the police are not there to protect them.”

The researchers found more than 5,000 posts and comments that met their criteria. Of the officers who could be identified on Facebook, 1 in every 5 of the current officers and 2 in every 5 of the retired officers made comments that met that standard, “typically by displaying bias, applauding violence, scoffing at due process, or using dehumanizing language,” Hoerner and Tulsky wrote. They describe posts in which “officers mocked Mexicans, women, and black people, celebrated the Confederate flag, and showed a man wearing a kaffiyeh scarf in the crosshairs of a gun.”

A post by a Phoenix police officer read: “Its [sic] a good day for a choke hold.” One Philadelphia officer mocked another officer as a “disgrace” for exercising restraint when a person refused to show a receipt. “My taser would’ve had him dancing,” he wrote.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on the identification of nearly 330 active local officers’ public Facebook posts that were included in the database. Reggie Shuford of the ACLU of Pennsylvania said, “Hundreds of police officers in Philadelphia openly express hostility and antipathy toward the people they serve. And the report only exposes those officers who did not hide their views behind a privacy wall. How many more officers say the same thing under the cloak of stronger privacy settings?”

It wasn’t just the less-experienced or lower-ranked officers who were responsible for the offensive, troubling public posts. Among those identified as members of the Philadelphia police department, at least 64 were in leadership roles, “serving as corporals, sergeants, lieutenants, captains, or inspectors, according to an employment roster from January.” One man identified in the database as a Philadelphia sergeant posted a photo of a skeleton wrapped in a U.S. flag, carrying a gun, with the phrase “Death To Islam” on top.

Hoerner and Tulsky also took the Plain View Project’s research and looked into whether officers whose Facebook posts warranted concern had a history of allegations of brutality or misconduct. In Philadelphia, as an example, they found that of the 328 officers, more than a third—139 officers—appeared to have been defendants in one or more federal civil rights lawsuits “based on name, badge number, and other corroborating details.” A hundred of those lawsuits ended in settlements or verdicts against the officers or the city.

…and that’s just the ones who are stupid enough to do it overtly on Facebook. The real total is much higher.

It is not an individual problem. It is systemic.

https://thumbs.mic.com/MDk0YmVlMzJlYSMvNkstVzQtY1lSMGM0UFpWd2NCNlRDRlEzYnBRPS9maXQtaW4vNzYweDAvZmlsdGVyczpub191cHNjYWxlKCk6Zm9ybWF0KGpwZWcpOnF1YWxpdHkoODApL2h0dHBzOi8vczMuYW1hem9uYXdzLmNvbS9wb2xpY3ltaWMtaW1hZ2VzL3Qyb3FidnpreHVsdjNrZ2Vsb3F3em9qcHZiaWVxbGt0amdieGN5bWlncWV6MzlsZGh1NGRsaHdmOGV3YWRkY2cuanBn.jpg

[Mister44]

LOL. Lettin’ it all hang out. Jesus.

[beep54orama]

Eh, I lilve in Austin, and the polcie are very polite. But I’m old and white so what the fuck do I know about it.

[Grey_Devil]

Also in Austin and personally havent had many interactions with them beyond being pulled over once for speeding and being let off with a warning, likely because i had expired registration tags but i had the paperwork to prove i had indeed renewed and was waiting for the new ones.

I’ve heard both good and bad things about Austin PD. Before moving here i’ve heard that the cops here are awful and sometimes overly aggressive (stories of them harassing jaywalkers), but i haven’t personally witnessed it. Still i take the time to treat them with respect, once i thanked some officers for their work while they were having lunch and they seemed genuinely surprised and happy about it (if it matters i’m hispanic but my experience shouldnt be taken as representative of anything other than just myself)