Top cop in charge of fighting discrimination in the New York police department dismissed from job after being tied to racist postings.
By World Israel News Staff
The senior police officer in charge of the New York City Police workplace discrimination office was relieved of his duties after it was revealed he was the officer behind a series of racist and anti-Semitic rants posted to an internal police online chat room, New York area media reported over the weekend.
Four years ago Deputy Inspector James Kobel was appointed to head the Equal Employment Opportunity Division that is supposed to monitor incidents of discrimination inside the NYPD.
However, after receiving complaints about the content of the chat room, police began an internal investigation in October and discovered evidence that Kobel was linked to the pseudonym “Clouseau” that had posted derogatory slurs against different groups including blacks, Jews, women and members of the LGBTQ community.
The “Clouseau” account commented on an article about Orthodox Jews not wanting to photographed by tourists, saying: “I think that eventually all of the inbreeding may lead to the demise of these clowns. The severity of birth defects will only increase. Unfortunately, the local taxpayer is going to be on the hook for the bill when the children need special programs in the local school districts and the parents continue to leach [sic] off the system.”
Contacted by the New York Times, Kobel denied the allegation, but the paper reported that Kobel was relieved from duty until the internal police investigation into the affair is complete.
The messages on the chat group by “Clouseau” included one calling Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark a “gap-tooth wildebeest,” made fun of Public Advocate Jumaane Williams for having Tourette’s syndrome, called former President Barack Obama a “Muslim savage” and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s son, Dante, a “brillohead,” ABC channel 7 news reported.
“The abhorrent racist, misogynist, and homophobic messages, which our evidence reveals was posted by NYPD Deputy Inspector James Francis Kobel, are deplorable and intolerable,” said New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson. “It is outrageous that any public servant, let alone the person in charge of handling harassment and equal opportunity at the department, would behave in this reprehensible and unprofessional manner.”
Clouseau allegedly also called President Donald Trump a “savage” who “reproduces little carbon copies of ‘herself/hisself’… someone please throw a gallon of bleach in the human gene pool.”
“The true culprit in all of this is the culture and operational structure of the NYPD that allows people like this to have lengthy, thriving careers,” former police lieutenant Edwin Raymond wrote in a NY Daily News op-ed.
“Having a front-row seat allows me to say firmly that many white officers are great people who simply try to do the best job that they can, but those without that luxury will feel vindicated in believing that all white officers are just another Clouseau.”