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Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department have been accused of making racist and derogatory remarks on secretly recorded audio.
According to a bombshell report by the Los Angeles Times, an LAPD recruitment officer recorded dozens of conversations involving officers and supervisors who openly expressed discrimination and hate towards potential recruits and colleagues. The roughly 90 recordings are a part of a complaint filed in January with LAPD's professional standards bureau and the inspector general's office.
In one recording, a Latina LAPD officer offered advice on how to fight Black people.
“You hit Black people in the liver. I heard they got weak livers,” she allegedly said. The same officer called a Latina janitor a "wetback."
The January complaint alleges that LAPD Sgt. Denny Jong led the racist conversations. In the audio, Jong allegedly claimed that late Los Angeles Dodgers star Fernando Valenzuela died because "he ate too much tacos."
Officers also allegedly referred to Black people as "monkeys."
The hours of recordings took place between March and October 2024.
In the wake of the complaint, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell removed a lieutenant, a sergeant, and four officers from the recruiting unit, saying he was “deeply disappointed” by the reports.
“Growing LAPD’s ranks is a top priority of this Administration and for our city’s safety, so this conduct is especially outrageous and unacceptable,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement amid the complaint. “The Chief and I are on the same page about the urgent need to fix the recruiting and hiring process and make sure that officers stuck in the past don’t tarnish the badge for everyone else.”
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