Miami Beach Police Sent So, So Many Racist, Sexist Emails

Miami Beach Police Chief Daniel Oates told reporters on Thursday that 16 officers in his department sent “hundreds” of racist, sexist, pornographic emails, which could jeopardize the criminal cases they’re witnesses in and also just looks terrible. The emails spanned about a two-year period and involved two high-ranking officials. One has been fired, while the other quickly retired.

According to the Associated Press, the emails are like your racist uncle’s spammy email chains, pumped up by a factor of a million: “crude jokes” about black celebrities, including President Obama and Tiger Woods. A cool email about a board game called “Black Monopoly,” in which, the AP reports, “every square says ‘go to jail.’” And a joke about beating women: a photo of a woman with a black eye, and the tagline, “Domestic violence. Because sometimes, you have to tell her more than once.”

There were about 230 emails in all, uncovered during an unrelated internal affairs probe involving a police major who’s now retired. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle told the AP that the officers who sent or received the emails are witnesses in about 540 cases, which are now all being reviewed to see if they’re “tainted” racially, and could result in some criminal charges being dropped against the suspects.

The past six months have also seen scandals involving racist emails from the Ferguson Police Department, rape jokes from the Austin police, and racist emails and text messages from the Fort Lauderdale police.

“I can’t tell you how angry we are,” Oates told reporters. “We want to send a message to our officers and our employees that this kind of behavior is over.” Until next time, someplace else, probably like five minutes from now.

Chief Oates speaks at a press conference with conference along with Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle on Thursday. Image via AP.