Richmond Police Scandal

I was reading a link from a friend's homepage about the suspension and (alleged) quitting of a white Richmond police officer over a photo in which he was hugging a Klansman (in reality a Hispanic fellow officer) at a Halloween party. What bothers me most about this incident is that the party perceived to be at fault was the white officer alone, when both the Hispanic cop and the police department should also share the blame.

According to the article, Richmond has a relatively high level of racial tension. This alone suggests that the Hispanic cop's choice of costume reflected poor judgment, and a reputation for being liberal and wearing it ironically just compounds it. His membership in a minority group does not exempt him; perhaps he's not white, but it is always possible for a black man to take offense at a Klan outfit.

The police department also should not escape censure. The article mentioned that the colleagues of the Hispanic cop laughed at costume precisely because he was known (to them) to be liberal. This statement implies he was wearing his costume somewhere that could be construed as an official police area. Policemen are public officials in both senses of the term, and although some rules may flex when policemen are off-duty, the general public will percieve them as police officers even out of uniform, in the same way as religious leaders and teachers cannot divest themselves fully of their public role. A group of off-duty police officers, therefore, among whom one is dressed as a member of a well-known and instantly recognizable racist organization, appears to approve, or at least be tolerant towards racism, especially in a community with a mixture of races and a relatively high level of racial tension.

In short, the Hispanic cop should have shown better personal and professional judgment and the department should not have allowed him to wear this costume in a context in which many policemen were involved.