White Detroit officer fired for Snapchat video taunting black woman
A white Detroit police officer has been fired after posting a Snapchat video in which he made derogatory comments about a black woman, Detroit Police Chief James Craig announced Wednesday. Officer Gary Steele made the comments after he impounded the woman's car last month, and as she walked away in the cold.
The video that was posted to Snapchat was first uncovered by Detroit television station WXYZ.
Steele and another officer pulled the woman over Jan. 29 for having an expired registration. They impounded her car and she walked away after turning down an offer to be escorted home, Craig said after the incident.
Craig said the stop and the tow were both lawful, but the Snapchat video was where the encounter "went bad." The video shows the woman walking away in freezing temperatures with the captions, "Celebrating Black History Month" and "What black girl magic looks like."
The officers can be heard commenting back and forth, "Priceless," "Walk of shame," "In the cold," and "Bye, Felicia."
Craig said he made the determination to fire Steele following an internal investigation. He said the investigation found other instances in Steele's 18-year career of using language he called "derogatory, demoralizing, degrading, and yes, racially insensitive." Craig said the derogatory terms included "keisha," "jakes" and "homies."
Steele hasn't commented but is expected to take the case to arbitration under union rules, the Associated Press reports. The investigation is now focusing on another officer who has been suspended.
The Rev. Wendell Anthony, the president of the Detroit chapter of the NAACP, lauded the decision to fire Steele.
"This is not a paintbrush against all of them," Anthony said, referring to Detroit police officers. "But the ones that are bad apples need to be extricated from the department."