Amid questions of white supremacist teams amongst U.S. cops, a high-ranking member of Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Division (MPD) has been positioned on go away following accusations they have been affiliated with such a company.
D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee withheld the identify and gender of the officer in query. Nonetheless, throughout a Wednesday press briefing, Contee confirmed the officer positioned on administrative go away throughout the investigation was a "high-ranking" lieutenant of the MPD.
The officer was positioned on go away "primarily based on a overview of what we all know thus far," Contee acknowledged throughout the press convention, including that the investigation needed to do with "a lot of actions."
Contee wouldn't verify the scope of the investigation, or if the allegations have been linked to a particular white supremacist group. Nonetheless, he acknowledged the investigation "might contain" the occasions of the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
"Something and every part is on the desk proper now," Contee mentioned. "We need to be sure that our members have the utmost belief of the communities we serve."
Whereas few extra particulars on the officer have been launched, WUSA-TV's Mike Valerio reported that the lieutenant was concerned within the MPD's "intel" division. Valerio added that different officers who personally knew the lieutenant have been "disgusted" on the allegations.
The accusations reached a severe sufficient stage that, along with the MPD, the investigation is being aided by a lot of federal companies. This consists of the U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Legal professional's workplace, Contee added.
The information of the lieutenant's investigation comes because the nationwide dialog round white supremacy in regulation enforcement continues to achieve traction. This has particularly been the case in the previous couple of years following a lot of police-involved shootings of African People, together with George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
A 2020 report from New York College's Brennan Middle for Justice discovered that "an especially hurtful type of bias...stays entrenched inside regulation implementment: explicit racism."
"Explicit racism in regulation implementment takes many types, from membership or affiliation with violent white supremacist or far-right militant teams, to engaging in racially discriminatory behavior towards the general public or regulation implementment colleagues, to creating racist remarks and sharing them on social media," the report continued. "Whereas it's broadly acknowledged that racist officers subsist inside police departments across the counattempt, federal, state, and native governments are doing far too little to proactively establish them."
The research additionally famous that, "Few regulation implementment agencies have insurance policies that particularally prohibit affiliating with white supremacist teams."
This implicit connection between American regulation enforcement and white supremacy organizations will not be new. A bulletin revealed by the FBI way back to 2006 warned of the specter of white nationalist and racist teams changing into extra commonplace inside policing.
These warnings got here throughout a interval the place many regulation enforcement companies noticed controversies involving white supremacy ties inside their ranks. This features a reported neo-Nazi gang that had been shaped officers inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Division.
The bulletin moreover famous that many cops all through the nation could not explicitly specific their white supremacist beliefs. Relatively, these people try and "mix into society and covertly advance white supremacist causes."
Newsweek has reached out to the DOJ for remark.
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