Secret recordings reveal LAPD cops spewing racist, sexist and homophobic comments, complaint alleges

By Richard Winton

For the better part of a year, a Los Angeles police officer working in the department’s recruitment office secretly recorded dozens of conversations in which fellow cops hurled racist and derogatory comments against Black police applicants, female colleagues, and lesbian and gay co-workers, according to a complaint filed with the LAPD.

In one conversation, a Latina LAPD officer offered this advice on how to fight African Americans: “You hit black people in the liver; I heard they got weak livers,” according to the complaint filed Jan. 5 with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Professional Standards Bureau and the inspector general’s office. The same officer allegedly described a Latina janitor to her colleagues as a “wetback” after the janitor complained about the officer.

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The complaint, a copy of which was reviewed by The Times, details portions of roughly 90 recordings made in the department’s Recruiting Division Personal History Section and portrays officers and supervisors voicing open discrimination against potential recruits and colleagues based on race, sex and sexual orientation. These same officers were tasked with deciding who could join the LAPD.

Details of the complaint were shared last month with Mayor Karen Bass, who told The Times that the allegations were “especially outrageous and unacceptable.” The actual language that the officers used, however, has not been reported until now.

The LA Times has more information about the complaint.

Unfortunately, racism is commonly displayed by police, as evidenced by other stories in our breaking news page.