Four Ft. Lauderdale Cops Fired After Racist Texts, Videos Exposed
Four police officers tasked with patrolling a predominantly black neighborhood lost their jobs Friday following a five-month investigation into racially charged text messages sent from their personal phones.
Officer James Wells, 30, Officer Jason Holding, 31, and Officer Christopher Sousa, 25, were fired. Officer Alex Alvarez, 22, resigned in late January before the investigation was complete.
“All four officers’ conduct involved racist text messages exchanged among themselves and former police officers,” Police Chief Frank Adderley, who is African-American, said at a Friday afternoon news conference. He said the officers did not engage in criminal behavior, “but their conduct was inexcusable and there is zero tolerance for this kind of behavior in the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.”
The group cellphone messages between the officers included racial, sexist and ethnically inappropriate images and texts, including disparaging remarks against Hispanics and gays. One such image appeared to be a snapshot taken from a TV showing a man wearing a Nazi uniform with swastikas. There was also a close-up of what appeared to be a black man’s mouth full of gold teeth.
Among the texts were:
Holding: “Id have that noose ready”
“The panty dropper had it’s first fail. This chick was high class cuban, nada impressed her. F—— cuban elite”
“I had a wet dream that you two found those two n—— in the VW and gave them the death penalty right there on the spot.”
Sousa: “Holdings we are coming and drinking all your beer and killing n——.”
Alvarez: “Jimmy what would big dad do to that n—–. Get that n—– out from under that wagon.”
Wells: “And that n—– lover in the wagon.”
Alvarez also produced a video – a mock movie trailer titled “The Hoods,” police said. The video showed images of President Barack Obama wearing a gold chain and gold tooth caps; someone wearing a Ku Klux Klansman’s hood; an African-American man being bitten by a police dog; a bloody scene and a wanted poster for “an escaped slave.”
Pembroke Pines resident Jasmen Rogers, 25, stood speechless and teary-eyed after watching the video for the first time outside Fort Lauderdale police headquarters.
“The fact that people think it’s humorous to have dogs unleashed on African- Americans — that they thought any part of that was funny — it’s just — it’s disgusting,” said Rogers, 25, an organizer for the Dream Defenders activist group. “People with powers are doing things like this. It’s not funny to us — not in the least.”
Alvarez’s ex-fiancee emailed screenshots of the racist text messages to the police chief on Oct. 16. The couple were in a 10-month relationship before she alerted the chief about the messages that were sent between mid-September and mid-October. The ex-fiancee declined to comment late Friday.
“Once this behavior was brought to our attention, we acted swiftly and within the law in handling this type of matter,” Adderley said. “All of the officers were immediately removed from having any contact with the public while the investigation was conducted.”
The firings come during a wave of national controversy over relations between police officers and minorities.
“We’ve all been privy to what’s been happening in New York and Ferguson and San Fransisco and other places all across the country,” City Manager Lee Feldman said.
“Even prior to this internal affairs investigation being concluded, the city and its police department had already begun engaging the community in conversation about difficult issues across this country,” he said.
Mayor Jack Seiler praised the police department for its prompt and decisive actions. He emphasized that the conduct of the four officers reflects not the work done by the department’s more than 500 officers, but instead “a few bad apples in a bunch.”
“This is a diverse police department,” he said. “It’s probably one of the most diverse police departments that you’re going to find anywhere, not only in South Florida but in the country, and I feel very confident that this police department enforces the law without consideration of race.”
The Fort Lauderdale force of 503 sworn officers includes 68 blacks, 80 Hispanics and six Asians. About a third of the department is a minority, records show. Female officers make up about 15 percent of the force.
Alvarez and Sousa are identified by the department as Hispanic; Holding and Wells are identified as white.
According to the internal affairs investigation, all four officers wrote texts that were racially offensive to African-Americans. Alvarez, Holding and Wells authored statements that maligned co-workers and Alvarez and Wells used the word “faggot.”
Investigators took sworn statements from Sousa, Wells and Holding — each acknowledged writing the comments attributed to their cellphone numbers, according to the internal affairs report. Alvarez resigned before his statement was taken.
In the officers’ termination letters Friday, the chief wrote: “Your conduct is inexcusable and jeopardizes the public’s trust of our agency.” They “demonstrate a lack of integrity and poor judgment,” he added.
Alvarez, Holding, Sousa and Wells could not be reached for comment Friday despite phone messages left for each officer, and an email sent to Wells. Officers have 10 days to request a hearing on the matter before they are officially terminated April 17.
Among the officers fired, none had served more than five years with the department. Collectively, they had more than a dozen public commendations. However, the personnel files of Alvarez, Wells and Sousa showed notes for “use of force” “unnecessary force” and “force excessive.”
The Fraternal Order of Police released a statement that read in part: “The Fraternal Order of Police is a multicultural organization which does not tolerate racism. Our officers take great pride in our commitment to diversity. Our dedicated officers have positive relationships with residents in every community we serve.”
FOP president Sgt. Jack Lokeinsky added, “Everyone is entitled to due process and these officers have the right to a fair review of the facts. I cannot comment on the specifics of this case as I have not had the opportunity to review the file.”
Marsha Ellison, president of the NAACP’s Broward County branch, said the organization will ask the U.S. Justice Department to conduct an investigation into the police department’s practices and look into possible criminal or civil rights charges against the four officers.
“Today’s report released by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department is a painful reminder of our city’s flawed criminal justice system and it underscores why serious reform is sorely needed,” Ellison said. “While we commend the Fort Lauderdale Police Department for issuing this report and for removing the officers involved in the sending of racially inappropriate text messages, more aggressive actions must be taken to ensure that law enforcement officials treat every member of this community respectfully and justly.”
Adderley said the department will continue to require officers to attend an annual human diversity class and that the department will implement an enhanced screening of potential hires.
Fort Lauderdale resident Jesse Cosme, 27, called the officers’ conduct “absolutely disgusting.”
“It’s a place of ignorance that they’re coming from and they really don’t understand the minorities in the community that they are enforcing,” said Cosme, who is Puerto Rican.
