BY Bob Walsh
If you follow such things you might remember a number of San Francisco P D officers were found, during the course of an internal investigation into corruption, to have exchanged a large number of in-your-face racist and homophobic messages a couple of years back. The Chief of the Department vowed to fire them for their attitudes. He maybe overplayed his hand.
The incidents are well past the one year statute of limitations under POBOR (Peace Officer Bill of Rights) in California. Judge Goldmsmith of the Superior Court ruled the department could not proceed against the officers. The city and the department have said they will appeal. The city has been aware of these text messages since February 2014. It took the chief over a year to decide to move against the eight officers involved, allegedly to protect the internal investigation. POBOR does not contain any such exception to the law.
Yolanda Williams, the spokesperson for Officers for Justice, an organization of exclusively non-white peace officers, was highly offended. One of the texts that showed up during the investigation referred to her as a “nigger bitch.”
Three of the accused officers have resigned. One of them asked to be reinstated after the statute of limitations issue came up. He was in fact reinstated.
Clicking the link below will go to a pretty good S F Chronicle piece on this story.
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Judge-rules-in-favor-of-S-F-cops-who-wrote-6713191.php
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