Three police officers in Wilmington, North Carolina, were fired after their department discovered a patrol video of conversations containing violent and racist comments about blacks, authorities announced Wednesday.
The Wilmington Police Department took action Tuesday against Cpl. Jessie Moore and Officers Kevin Piner and Brian Gilmore. Each was charged with violating standards of conduct, criticism, and use of inappropriate language.
Police Chief Donny Williams said at a press conference on Wednesday that “with the approval of our City Council and under the direction of City Manager Sterling Cheatham,” he was publishing a summary of the investigation.
“When I heard about these conversations, I was shocked, saddened, and upset,” Williams said. “There is no place for this behavior in our agency or our city and it will not be tolerated.”
The recorded conversations of Gilmore, Piner and Moore were discovered June 4 during a routine camera camera audit of Piner’s car, according to documents released by the police department.
“The conversations included disrespectful language, hateful speech, and referred to blacks as the N-word,” the police chief said, adding that officers also criticized him, several black officers within the agency, and made negative comments about people outside the agency. Additionally, they made negative comments about the Black Lives Matter protests and criticized the Wilmington Police Department’s response, he said.
A sergeant reviewing images of Piner’s car, which were classified as coming from the “accidental activation” of the video recorder, initially noted “extremely racist comments” in a conversation between Piner and Moore. The comments prompted the supervisor to take a closer look at the video, which captured officers using the N word and other racist language.
An internal investigation followed.
At the 46-minute mark in the video, Piner and Gilmore start talking from their respective cars, the police brief says.
Their conversation revolves around the topic of protests across the country after George Floyd, a black man, died in May after a white Minneapolis police officer put his knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes.
Piner complains in an apparent reference to his own department that his only concern was “kneel with the blacks.”
About 30 minutes later, Piner receives a phone call from Moore, who in the call repeatedly refers to a black woman who arrested a day earlier as “Black” and an N word, the summary says. Moore also refers to a black magistrate as an “f —— black magistrate”.
Moore says, “Not all black people are like this,” according to the summary. Piner responds: “Most of them.”
Piner tells Moore later in the phone conversation that a civil war is coming and that he is “ready.”
Piner starts talking about martial law and says, “We’ll just go out there and start killing them f —— N-words. I can’t wait. God, I can’t wait.”
Moore replies that he would not do that. Piner says, “I’m ready,” according to the summary.
Piner tells Moore that society needs a civil war to “wipe them off the map. That will delay them by four or five generations.”
According to the investigation, the officers were interviewed separately and admitted that they were their voices in the video and did not deny any of the content.
Each officer denied being racist, according to the summary of the investigation. Officials cited the current climate stress over law enforcement as a reason for their “comfort.”
Gilmore, 48, could not immediately be reached by phone for comment Thursday. Piner, 44, and Moore, 50, did not immediately respond to requests for comment by phone and email on Thursday.
On Wednesday afternoon, Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said the City Council unanimously agreed to release documentation of the officers’ conversations despite the fact that such action violated the privacy of staff files.
“I can honestly say that I was sickened by the vile and destructive language used by these officers,” Saffo said.
Williams said in a statement Wednesday: “Personnel laws typically allow only a very small amount of information to be released. However, in exceptional cases, when it is essential to maintain public confidence in City administration and the Police Department, more information can be released. “
The police chief said this is the most exceptional and difficult case he has encountered in his career and that we must establish new surveillance reforms here at home and across the country.
Williams said he will recommend that the three officers not be rehired by notifying the North Carolina Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Training about their behavior. In addition to the dismissal of the officers, the district attorney’s office will review past criminal cases involving the three officers to determine if they committed any crimes in the conduct of those cases or showed bias towards the accused.
