Chicago cops posts racist social media posts in COPA report

[ad_1]

When then-Ald. John Arena announced plans in 2017 to bring affordable housing development to Jefferson Park, the proposal met with strong resistance from some who said they feared the new housing would increase crime in a neighborhood on the northwest side that is home to many city workers.

Amid heated community debate, staffers at the Arenas 45th Ward office noticed racist comments about the proposal on Facebook, many of them made by Chicago cops.

Arenas’ office provided screenshots of offensive posts to City Hall’s office of inspectors general, citing 31 sworn officers who had joined the contentious dispute, and staff of inspectors general reported 10 more.

It took nearly five years for the Civil Police Accountability Office, the city’s police oversight agency, to complete its investigation into the officers’ social media posts. That led the agency to recommend last August that five members of the Chicago Police Department receive lengthy suspensions for making inflammatory, in some cases racist, comments about development and other divisive issues.

Now, a new COPA report details the officers’ posts and the agencies’ findings. Among the cop posts:

sergeant. Keith Olson described Chicago’s teens as little f—animals but expressed encouragement that the ghetto building had yet to get approval. Officer Dallas Englehart responded to a message endorsing President Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall on the US border with Mexico and offered to shoot down what he called undocumented planes with anti-aircraft blasts. sergeant. Anargyros Kereakes equated the Black Lives Matter movement, the NFL and black artists with the Ku Klux Klan and asked, does Black Lives Matter really matter to black people? Officer Angel Avalos Jr. took to the social media platform to write Work Will Set You Free! a variation of a phrase that appeared on the gates of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. Officer Scott Kniaz predicted, when a police officer was allegedly injured after a video emerged showing the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by a Chicago cop: The war will soon begin.

COPA recommended suspending Englehart, Kereakes and Olson for at least 120 days. Avalos faced a minimum suspension of 60 days. Kniaz was deemed deserving of a 30-day sentence.

None of this happened.

Kereakes, Avalos and Englehart had already resigned from their positions with the Chicago Police Department by the time the department responded to the recommendations, according to a letter Lt. Robert Flores wrote to COPA.

Flores wrote that the recommended suspensions for Olson and Kniaz would be implemented, but a police spokesperson now says officers are fighting the suspensions through the department’s disciplinary grievance process.

Police officials will not comment on the findings of the COPA report and did not respond when asked what they do to monitor cops on social media and how they investigate members who express racism.

In the time it took COPA to complete the investigation of Jefferson Park, the mixed-income development across from the Jefferson Park District Police Station at 5150 N. Northwest Hwy. was built and opened.

The 75-unit complex caters to veterans, people with disabilities and elderly residents who began moving out last spring.

Arena, who lost his re-election bid in 2019, declined to comment on the report. A member of his staff filed a complaint in February 2018.

In a Facebook post at the time, Arena wrote that several members of the Chicago Police Department participated in the debate over the proposed development in a way that many in our community found offensive and dehumanizing.

At a time when police leaders are working to restore public trust in the DPC, inappropriate comments from members of the force are undermining this necessary work, Arena wrote.

Former Ald. Jean Arena (45th). Chicago Sun-TimesCPD is far from the problem

COPA’s investigation found that the five officers violated rules prohibiting discrediting the department, disobeying an order or direction, disrespecting others, and using defamatory or abusive language.

Englehart had nine of the charges supported, the most of all officers.

Officer Dallas Englehart offered to use anti-aircraft guns to shoot down planes carrying undocumented immigrants in Facebook posts on November 9, 2016. Civilian Office of Police Accountability

In November 2016, Englehart responded to a message saying it was TIME TO BUILD THAT WALL, a reference to the campaign promise Trump broke. His suggestion to use anti-aircraft guns to shoot down undocumented planes seemed to allude to planes carrying asylum seekers to the United States.

COPA said his comments showed violent animosity toward the undocumented community.

In other posts, Englehart compared welfare recipients to looters, pointed to false statistics about the extent of slavery and shared an article that included Confederate images and a white supremacist slogan. He retired from the police service in November 2020. He got back the $43,963 he had contributed for his retirement and does not receive a municipal pension.

Kereakes used his real name on Facebook and regularly identified himself as a police officer while discussing issues such as the development of Jefferson Park and shootings involving police officers.

His profile included a photo of him in uniform. But Kereakes told investigators he believed his Facebook account had gone private when he launched into a tirade against the BLM movement in February 2016.

[D]o Does Black Lives really matter to black people? Let’s be honest here. Black-on-black crime on the West and South sides cannot be blamed on the white man, Kereakes wrote in the exchange, linking the KKK to the BLM movement, the NFL and entertainment power couple Beyonce and Jay-Z .

sergeant. Anargyros Kereakes questioned whether black lives really matter to black people in a February 14, 2016 Facebook post. Civilian Police Accountability Office

But COPA found the comments raised questions about whether he could enforce the law fairly and equitably.

Kereakes also denigrated Cuban immigrants, gunned down victims of police shootings, and jokingly recommended that the cops rob a mother f—— like the gangsters we were.

Kereakes resigned from the police department in April 2021 and receives a city pension of $6,651 a month.

Kereakes now says COPA took its social media posts out of context.

At no time did I make racist comments, he said on Friday.

Kereakes also said he left the department because the mayor and police chiefs completely abandoned our citizens during the 2020 Chicago riots following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Avalos faced six sustained charges for posts he made using an alias on a public Facebook account, including a Work will see you free post.

Officer Angel Avalos Jr. used a Nazi slogan in a 2017 Facebook post. Civilian Office of Police Accountability

Avalos said it was a reference to a Spanish phrase his grandfather taught him about working hard to get out of poverty and denied any affiliation with Nazism, although the phrase is a translation of the inscription at Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.

COPA ruled that Avalos’ intention was irrelevant.

Whether or not he knew his comment was associated with a Nazi concentration camp, it could reasonably be perceived as such, especially in light of his other derogatory and discriminatory comments, COPA officials wrote.

Avalos also posted biased messages asking if Muslims were peaceful, as well as comments that COPA said were insensitive to victims of police brutality and undermined public trust in law enforcement.

Avalos left the department last September and receives no municipal pension.

Olson, who spelled his last name backwards on his Facebook account, had only one sustained accusation stemming from the post which directly referenced the Jefferson Park development.

sergeant. Keith Olson called Chicago’s teens the f—animal in 2017 while celebrating that development of an affordable housing project he described as a ghetto had stalled. Civilian Office of Police Accountability

CPD is far from the problem, he wrote in 2017, these little f—- animals have no respect for anything. At least the ghetto building on [Northwest Highway] is at a standstill.

He told investigators he was commenting on bad behavior by local teenagers.

But COPA ruled that Olsons’ comments were indicative of animosity toward members of a particular community and against low-income people.

Olson remains on active duty, working in the Area 5 Detective Division. He earns an annual salary of $133,860.

Kniaz made a series of comments that resulted in two sustained charges after a video of McDonald’s murder by police emerged in 2015.

On November 25, 2015, Kniaz railed against a protester who allegedly punched an officer during a protest and criticized members of the Chicago City Councils Black Caucus for resisting the arrest.

The war will not delay any longer, he wrote on Facebook.

Officer Scott Kniaz warned war was imminent after video footage showing the killing of Laquan McDonald by police emerged in a November 25, 2015 Facebook post. Civilian Office of Police Accountability

Four days later, he predicted that Chicago would burn if Officer Jason Van Dyke was acquitted of murder in a trial before a white judge.

Cook County Circuit Judge Vincent Gaughan, who is white, ultimately presided over the jury trial and sentenced Van Dyke to six years in prison for second-degree murder.

The message was derogatory to both the potential judge and local communities based on race, COPA wrote.

Kniaz remains on duty in the Grand Central District, earning an annual salary of $114,282.

Kereakes, Englehart, Avalos and Kniaz did not respond to requests for comment. Olson could not be reached.

The COPA investigation cleared other officers who had been the subject of complaints about their social media activity, including John Garrido, who was a lieutenant and longtime Arena political rival. Garrido, who retired last year, challenged someone online who took offense over Avalos Work will let you comment for free, according to the COPA report.

When asked why he wouldn’t condemn the post, Garrido replied that the reviewer was a special kind of stupid and scoffed at the idea that the post violated police policy, according to COPA.

File a complaint if you want to file a complaint, he wrote.

Asked about COPA’s findings, Arena said Friday: The report speaks for itself. Despite the challenges, the building was finally constructed, and low-income families, veterans, and the disabled are benefiting from this effort.

[ad_2]