Last week Grosse Pointe Park police were put on blast for some seriously racist behavior by the Motor City Muckraker blog, that report has lead to an investigation into the matter:
Grosse Pointe Park police officially opened an internal investigation today following our report Thursday that officers were capturing humiliating videos and pictures of black men and texting them to colleagues and family.
“On Thursday, November 14 2013, the Grosse Pointe Park Public Safety Department was contacted by an individual who said that he was in possession of video clips and a photo of African American males,” police said in press release to Huffington Post. “The video clips and photo are allegedly made by an officer of this department. The department has begun an internal investigation of this matter. The Grosse Pointe Park Public Safety Department does not tolerate unprofessional conduct by its officers when interacting with any citizen they may come in contact with.”
Police have declined to update us on the investigation, but we provided them with more images from the text messages today. We'll be giving them additional evidence this weekend.
Most of the videos are shot from squad cars while African American men are told to sing or “dance like a chimp.” Some of the subjects are even in the back of police cars.
One of the main culprits is Officer Mike Najm, who texted a picture of a black man in the back of a trailer and typed, “Gotta love the coloreds.” In one video, Najm can be heard telling a mentally ill black man to sing.
Despite bordering Detroit, Grosse Pointe is notorious for being a wealthy enclave where racism has long been tolerated. Which leads us to wonder whether this investigation will actually result in any real consequences for the guilty parties.
We will be releasing more racist videos later today and in the next several days.
