Tensions flared at a special city council meeting in Antioch after racist and homophobic text exchanges among police officers were revealed following a federal investigation.
At least two people had to be escorted out of an Antioch City Council special meeting on Tuesday after a heated back-and-forth with the city's mayor.During the public comment portion of the meeting, someone called for an investigation into Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe."You want to go outside right now? Let's go!" yelled Thorpe during an exchange with a local resident.
ABC7's sister station in San Francisco obtained a report containing the texts in which officers used slurs and made light of national cases involving police violence."This is in their heart," Thorpe said. "It's not just 17 individuals we're talking about, we're talking about 24. I'm not sweeping it under the rug. We're not going to do that. They may get upset. The institution and status quo may get upset, but I'm not hiding behind that.
There is uncertainty about how many officers are implicated in the report. Antioch Police Chief Steven Ford said officers who may have been involved are not currently on patrol. "There's a lot of good officers in the Antioch Police Department who work hard every day," he said. "That's one thing I noticed when I came here from San Francisco after 32 years is the dedication that these officers have to the profession so I'm not going to indict the entire organization. Let's be clear, this is unfortunate. Let's not gloat in this; this is very, very unfortunate to the city, this organization, and this profession.
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