At the very beginning of June, a group called The Plain View Project—established in 2017 as a research group looking for racist, Islamophobic, and other hateful rhetoric posted and shared by law enforcement on social media—released some very harrowing results. The database they had compiled, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, included around 3,100 posts by some 330 active Philadelphia police officers. Of the 330, at least 16 were ranked officers. One of the issues with police officers’ private social media posts is that virtually all law enforcement agencies have some form of a social media policy that includes a restriction from posting things that could undermine public confidence in the law enforcement agent. The Plain View Project that collected this batch of law enforcement revelations, was led by Harvard Law graduate Emily Baker-White who told the Inquirer that she began this work because she had realized no one was aggregating police officer social media posts.
The results, published in Buzzfeed News, with the help of nonprofit newsroom Injustice Watch, was undeniable. While The Plain View Project was Philadelphia based, the disturbing posts from law enforcement were found from Dallas to Chicago to Florida. At the time, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross told the Inquirer that he was “disturbed” by the group’s report and that internal affairs was investigating to determine if any actions should and could be taken against some of the officers. The highlighted social media posts ranged from officers declaring things like “Death to Islam,” to posts joking about police brutality against alleged criminals.
On Wednesday, about three weeks after the initial report, Commissioner Ross held a press conference announcing that while the investigation was continuing, 72 Philadelphia police officers had been taken off of street duty. Ross said that while none of the officers being investigated had yet been “disciplined,” he expected many to be in the coming weeks, and that “several” officers would likely be fired. Philadelphia council members told press that they felt this was a good “first step.”
Being a law enforcement officer does not immunize you from all of the bigotries and petty hatreds, the ignorance or the irrational fears that plague our society. Some might argue that there are many people attracted to law enforcement work because of that combination of fear and ignorance. The 330 police officers being investigated make up around 5% of the Philadelphia Police force. Does this mean that only 5% of the Philadelphia police are bigots? No, it means that only 5% of Philadelphia police are dumb enough to post their bigotries for the public to read.
