NAACP demands changes at San Jose Police Department after cop ousted over racist texts
SAN JOSE -- Officials with the San Jose chapter of the NAACP on Thursday called on the city to make sure no more injustice has been done by the former SJPD officer who sent racist texts about shooting a Black man during an incident last year.
The scandal first arose last Friday when San Jose Police Chief Anthony Mata confirmed a police officer involved in a shooting at a taqueria last year was no longer on the force after an internal affairs investigation revealed he sent "disgusting" racist text messages related to the shooting.
The statement regarding the officer misconduct investigation identified the former officer as Mark McNamara.
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The letter noted that McNamara had been with the department for six years and had been involved in an officer-involved shooting during a large brawl at a La Victoria Taqueria in downtown San Jose on March 27, 2022. Police revealed two days after the incident that an officer had shot the man who had disarmed a gunman in the taqueria brawl.
An investigation into the shooting later determined that it was McNamara who had shot the man, by then identified as K'uan Green. A former Oakland McClymonds High School football player who at the time was playing for Contra Costa College, Green was shot four times and has filed a federal suit against San Jose.
The text messages revealed by the internal affairs investigation include exchanges between McNamara and a second unnamed San Jose police officer about the officer-involved shooting as well as the subsequent investigation and hearings held related to that shooting.
"N---a wanted to carry a gun in the Wild West," McNamara said in one text sent the evening after the shooting "Not on my watch haha."
The other messages uncovered were from June and July, apparently during hearings about the officer-involved shooting. Some of those texts included even more inflammatory language.
"I hate black people," read one of the last text messages sent in July.
On Thursday, the San Jose NAACP representatives and other local leaders sent a list of demands in response to the allegations against McNamara.
They want all of cases related to the officer dropped and for any officers McNamara texted to be investigated as well.
"Can you really get all the racist cops out of your department? They know who they are. They work with them everyday," said Rev. Reginald Swilley, the Associate Pastor at the Maranatha Christian Center.
Chief Mata sent out a statement in response that said he fully agrees with the NAACP and is working to ensure McNamara is decertified and will never work as a police officer anywhere else again.
"I want our community to know that I am committed to an anti-racism culture within our department and am already working with our community partners to update our officer training."
He also said that training will include this incident as a case study.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office on Thursday said they are reviewing any cases that involved McNamara.
