by Jo Ellen Nott

The Torrance Police Department of Los Angeles, California, is under intense scrutiny at both the county and state levels since two officers unwittingly unleashed a scandal after allegedly painting a swastika on the rear seat and smiley face on the front seat of a vehicle involved in a mail theft. Officers Cody Weldin and Christopher Tomsic had ordered the vehicle to be impounded and purportedly vandalized the car in January of 2020. After criminal charges of vandalism were brought, Torrance police officials discovered disturbing text message threads connecting 12 other current and former Torrance Police Department officers or recruits.

The electronic banter among the officers mocked the communities they swore to protect and serve. Although text messages talked about gassing Jews and assaulting LGBQT individuals, most of the hateful messages targeted the black community. As the Los Angeles Times investigated the scandal of the Torrance cops, these troubling memes were found among the more than 200 gigabytes of data dating back to 2018 uncovered in the Times report:

A photo of a lynching with the caption ‘hanging with the homies.’

A photo asking what to do if a girlfriend is having an affair with a black man? Break ‘a taillight on his car so the police will stop him and shoot him.’

A photo of a candy cane, a Christmas tree ornament, a star for the top of the tree and an ‘enslaved person.’ ‘Which one doesn’t belong?’ the caption asked. ‘You don’t hang the star,’ an officer responded.

A photo of former President Reagan feeding a monkey with a caption stating Reagan ‘used to babysit [former President] Obama.’

A photo referred to an ‘African American baby’ as a ‘Pet Niguana.’

Weldin and Tomsic were fired after the swastika incident, and the Torrance Police Department reported that 15 Torrance police officers are currently on paid administrative leave in wake of the text messaging scandal. The questionable credibility of cases involving these officers has led the Los Angeles County District Attorney to dismiss approximately 40 felony cases and the Torrance City Attorney to dismiss 50 misdemeanor cases. Another 1,800 cases going back some 10 years in Los Angeles County are under review.

Police Chief Jay Hart immediately made a statement promising that “I am committed to accountability, and I will not tolerate any form of bigotry, racism, hate, or misconduct.” Hart requested help from the California Department of Justice soon after the scandal broke and Attorney General Rob Bonta announced on December 8, 2021, the “launching of an independent review of the Torrance Police Department (TPD) as part of an effort to identify and correct potential systemic failures in the department’s policies and practices … the review will aim to promote public safety and rebuild trust between TPD and the community it serves.”

According to CNN, “no TPD officers currently face criminal charges for the offensive text messages.” Attorney Thomas Yu for former Torrance police officer Cody Weldin claimed the extraction of data from his client’s cell phone violated the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Yu was most recently attempting to have the text messages suppressed. An attorney for the union that represents the police officers stated, “Our members have a right to due process and should be protected from illegal and unnecessary intrusion into their private lives.”

Sources: latimes.com, cnn.com, oag.ca.gov, thehill.com, dailymail.com

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