Several cities have launched investigations into the online conduct of their police officers after a database revealed thousands of racist and otherwise offensive social media posts by current or former members of law enforcement.
The Plain View Project (PVP) has since 2017 examined the public profiles of police officers from eight jurisdictions. Its findings were detailed in an investigative feature published jointly by Injustice Watch and BuzzFeed News on Saturday.
After matching published employee rosters with Facebook profiles, and examining the public posts those individuals made, the project found thousands of Facebook posts and comments that ran the gamut from racist memes to conspiracy theories to bombastic expressions of violence. Several expressed the desire to use a taser or deadly force on suspects, actions that have brought law enforcement under scrutiny in recent years and sparked nationwide protests against police brutality.
“Instead of hands up don’t shoot, how about pull your pants up don’t loot!” read a meme that depicted the late African American singer Sammy Davis Jr. in an apparent dig at the Black Lives Matter movement. The image was shared on Facebook in 2015 by a captain in the Philadelphia Police Department.
