Dallas police Senior Cpl. Jeff Blanch had a question for his Facebook friends in 2012: “Does any other man have trouble keeping their woman in line?”
In the comments section, he added that he had “perfected the backhand.”
Officer Saint Nelson shared a meme that shows a man, marked “Europe,” with a noose around his neck tied to a small tree, marked “Islam,” that he is watering.
Officer Michael DeWilde shared a meme that showed a bundle of explosives labeled “dangerous” attached to a timer. “Look! It’s a clock!” the caption read. The post came days after a Muslim student was arrested in Irving for what authorities assumed might be an explosive device. It turned out to be a self-made digital clock.
Those are among the dozens of Dallas officers’ Facebook posts compiled by the Plain View Project, an initiative of Philadelphia-based lawyers who hoped departments would investigate their employees’ conduct.
The project, which looked at officers in eight U.S. cities, prompted Dallas police to launch an internal affairs investigation of 34 officers, although the department has declined to release their names. If the investigation finds officers have violated the department's social media policy, the cops could face possible disciplinary action ranging from written reprimand to termination. Philadelphia's police commissioner on Thursday announced he would fire 13 officers for their posts and planned disciplinary action for others.
Dallas activists, community leaders and city officials believe the posts could shake the public’s trust in the police department. But officer association leaders chalked up some of the posts to venting about emotionally and physically taxing police work or misdirected anger at the July 7, 2016, ambush.
Ekram Haque, interim executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations DFW, said he was troubled by some of the posts, including ones that seem to suggest Muslims aren’t loyal to the country, “so violence against them is justified.”
“What’s most problematic is these posts aren’t coming from any Tom, Dick or Harry,” Haque said. “They’re coming from law enforcement, officers sworn to protect all citizens of Dallas equally.”
The Dallas Morning News reviewed the database of Dallas officers and reached out to 10 cops who had taken to Facebook to express views about race, religion, ethnicity, women or violent policing. They did not respond to requests for comment through their Facebook pages.
Zach Horn, an attorney who represents the majority of officers under investigation, said he won’t comment on specific posts or officers. But he said he has found inaccuracies in the Plain View Project database as well as “comments clearly taken out of context and comments so old they predate the department’s social media policy.”
Investigations
Dallas police have publicly named only one officer under investigation: Matthew Rushing, who was already on administrative leave for allegedly writing traffic tickets to parked cars. Several of Rushing's posts featured in the Plain View database showed support for violent police actions. One post appeared to misapply a slur for Germans to criticize Japan for Pearl Harbor.
Rushing’s attorney, Robert Rogers, declined to comment.
In Jeff Blanch’s case, his wife, Amber, said her husband is under investigation for potential social media policy violations. He made several derogatory comments about women on his page over the years.
Amber Blanch told The News her husband has never been abusive, and the posts were simply jokes.
The department’s social media policy, created in 2014, says officers "are free to express themselves as private citizens on social media sites" as long as it doesn't "impair working relationships of the department, impede the performance of their duties, impair discipline and harmony among co-workers, or negatively affect the public perception of the department."
Bob Gorsky, an attorney for the Dallas Police Association, said earlier this month that the department ought to “focus less on being the thought police and more on the real police needs of the city."
But Jared Schroeder, a Southern Methodist University communication law professor, said while free speech protects people from the government limiting their expression, an employer’s disciplinary action is a “private issue, not a First Amendment concern.”
Schroeder, who specializes in freedom of expression and social media, said the investigation could face challenges because plenty is left to interpretations.
“What they thought no one would see, everyone is going to see now,” he said. “The fuzzy area I keep running into is this question of public trust: Do their personal social media posts undermine the public trust in this government institution?”
Social media shares
Schroeder said without context, some of the posts could convey different meanings to people.
For example, many of the photos shared by officers had references to the Three Percenters, a group described as an anti-government militia by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group’s name stems from the belief that only 3% of American Colonists took up arms against the British. (The figure was higher than that by the war’s end.)
Officer Jerry Hornback shared multiple pictures with the Three Percenters logo. One of his posts shows a black and white picture of a baby wearing a T-shirt with "3%" written on it, and a hat with the group's skull logo. Another shows a mask with the logo on it. In the comments, Hornback confirmed the symbol stood for the Three Percenters.
Hornback did not respond to a request for comment.
Some officers might not have been aware of the Three Percenters’ background. For instance, many officers identify with The Punisher, a vigilante Comic Book character who beats and kills criminals. And the Three Percenters’ skull logo shares similarities with the Punisher logo.
But that is still a questionable mindset for officers, said Megan Squire, a professor at Elon University who tracks online extremism. Squire said identifying with The Punisher is “just so over the top for people who are supposed to be police officers to be talking about abuse of power.”
Terrance Hopkins, president of the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas, said some of the posts, especially the ones tinged with racial stereotypes, should be denounced. But he also cautioned that some officers may have been “badly” expressing frustration with the violence they see on the job.
For example, some officers shared posts about crime stories, sometimes making crass comments about suspects in crime cases.
“I would like people to understand the difference between something that is hate-based versus something where a police officer is expressing how he feels because he sees a constant negative side of society,” Hopkins said.
Comments on minority groups
Many other posts included in the Plain View Project share anti-Black Lives Matter sentiment. Several shared fake news stories that associate criminals with the protest movement despite no reported connections — other than the criminals are black.
Hopkins said most officers understand the movement came about because of the “disproportionate shootings of unarmed black men by white police.”
But Hopkins said many Dallas officers associate the movement with the killing of five officers during the July 7, 2016, ambush, which came at the end of a protest against police shootings of unarmed black men elsewhere in the country.
Among the posts in the database was one from Nelson, who shared an article from a fake news site in 2016 titled "Missouri Cop Ambushed By BLM Thugs Now Paralyzed From Neck Down." While an officer was paralyzed, the alleged attacker had no reported connection to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Nelson did not respond to a request for comment.
Sara Mokuria, who became an activist after her father was killed by Dallas police, said she finds it hard to believe the bias against the movement would not affect officers' interactions with the black community.
“These overt and conscious biases — you can't separate them from the decisions in the field” she said.
Dallas Police Association President Mike Mata disagreed with the idea Dallas officers would treat people differently in the field.
“We don’t pick and choose,” he said. “Whoever we see is assaulted, we help. Whoever is doing the assaulting — regardless of color — gets arrested. We don’t know the person's political affiliations when we answer that 911 call and any belief contrary is ridiculous.”
Activists said they were also concerned by the number of Islamophobic and anti-immigrant posts shared by police officers.
In another case highlighted by the project, Officer Alexander Shirley shared a Conservative Tribune article with the headline, "Welfare-leeching immigrants are about to get bad news from Trump Admin." Shirley commented, "This is all I have ever wanted to hear." Shirley did not respond to a request for comment.
Angelica Andrade, who works with immigrants as the community outreach chair for the North Texas Dream Team, said “immigrants already don't trust the police because they think their immigration status will be questioned.”
Some officers also shared content from anti-Muslim groups on Facebook. The officers described themselves as infidels at war with Muslims.
"I am the infidel the imam warned you about," Officer John Arnold's profile photo from 2014 read. "I do not come to bring peace but the sword."
Officials response
A month after the database went live, Police Chief U. Renee Hall said officials “take these matters seriously and we want to ensure the community that we will not tolerate racism, bigotry or hatred of any kind in our organization.”
Hall said at the time that the public would receive updates on the investigation, but the chief went on indefinite medical leave July 10.
Council members are on recess for most of July, and several didn’t return requests for comment.
But Mayor Eric Johnson in a written statement lauded Hall for conducting an investigation into the social media posts.
“I share her belief that the Dallas Police Department is no place for individuals who perpetuate negative racial stereotypes or who hold racist views,” Johnson said. “I will continue to follow closely this ongoing investigation.”
And City Council member Jennifer Staubach Gates, who chairs the mayor’s domestic violence task force, said she was troubled that public servants “would post something so disparaging.”
“It is offensive as a woman, it is embarrassing as a city official,” Gates said. “We have a lot of good women and men who serve our city, and this is embarrassing for them.”
Staff writers Maria Mendez, Maria Elena Vizcaino and Paul Cobler contributed to this report
