Source: Douglas Sacha / Getty
It is often said that “good” police officers need to hold the “bad apples” among them accountable when they witness wrongdoing, abuse, or other infractions. Sadly, we don’t see this type of blue on blue accountability very often so when stories like this cross our desk, it’s necessary that we report them.
According to new reporting by the LATimes, an LAPD officer assigned to recruitment has been secretly recording other officers’ wildly offensive conversations in which they make racist, homophobic, and misogynistic comments about other officers, Black people, women, and their LGBTQ coworkers.
Racist cops in the LAPD?! Say it ain’t so!
Source: Mel Melcon / Getty
In a complaint that was filed on January 5, 2025, an LAPD officer is accused of calling a female supervisor a “gay a** b***h”. Another Latina officer is accused of saying that the best way to fight Black people is to “hit Black people in the liver” because “I heard they have weak livers”. This same officer allegedly and inexplicably referred to another Latina, a janitor, as a “wetback”. Two other officers, one female, and one Latino male, were heard joking that “Black people like grape soda” to which the male officer replied “Black people enjoy grape soda in between basketball”.
Here’s some sweet-yet-sick irony for you, the person responsible for overseeing these little piggies is a Black man named Lt. Louis Lavender. The complaint not only accuses him of not doing anything to quell the high disrespectful and inappropriate workplace conversations, he was captured saying this about his gang’s conversational conduct:
“Man, we’re going to end up in the L.A. Times the way you all talk in here. You all can bring down the whole department.”
From his lips to God’s ears. In total, a lieutenant, a sergeant, and four officers were named in the complaint including Lt. Lavender, Sgt. Denny Jong, Officer Shirley Burgos, and one named McKay, two of the other officers’ names went unnamed.
Also redacted from the legal complaint is the name of the whistleblowing officer, although it is noted that it is a male Latino officer who has been with the department for 10 years.
We will be following this story closely to see if these officers are allowed to retain their badges despite their blatant bigotry.
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