The city of Antioch voted Tuesday to audit its troubled police department after racist text messages sent by officers were made public earlier this month.
The incendiary text messages, which were heavily redacted, contain derogatory, racist, homophobic and sexually explicit language. Officers brag about making up evidence and beating up suspects. They refer to women as water buffalo, share photos of gorillas, freely use racial slurs and make light of the police killing of George Floyd in 2020.
Mayor Lamar Thorpe is among three Black, progressive members of the five-person council who have said they are committed to holding police accountable and protecting tenants’ rights. In 2021, the city issued an apology for its treatment of early Chinese immigrants. The text messages came out as part of an investigation launched in March 2022 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Contra Costa District Attorney’s office into a broad range of offenses, including what prosecutors called crimes of “moral turpitude,” by officers with the Antioch and nearby Pittsburg police departments.
In April 2020, one Antioch officer texted an officer at another police department: “Since we don’t have video I sometimes just say people gave me a full confession when they didn’t, get filed easier.”
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