Candidate for Santa Clara County Sheriff John Hirokawa has taken the position that racist, sexist and anti-Semitic texts by Santa Clara County deputy sheriffs are not an issue if those text were sent on their own time and on their own devices. Here’s why that’s wrong: bigotry, whether on the job or off the job, is an issue when you testify as a witness, and law enforcement officers have to testify all the time.
If evidence of racial bias by a law enforcement officer is found, it can be used to impeach the credibility of the officer on the witness stand. For example, former Santa Clara County Correctional Officer Sgt. Lance Scimeca sent a text that contained a video montage of police shooting African-American men, saying watching it gave him a “HARD ON.” If he were called to testify against an African American defendant, Scimeca’s racial bias – the fact that he takes pleasure in violence against African American men- would probably be used to cross examine him.
One of the most famous examples of police bias coming up in a trial is the OJ Simpson case. When Mark Fuhrman, a former detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, was called to testify at the Simpson trial, the defense team produced recorded tapes of Fuhrman using racist language and racial epithets towards African Americans. Fuhrman’s credibility, and that of the prosecution, was undermined and cited as one of the reasons Simpson was acquitted. In other words, officer racism is not just morally wrong, but bad for public safety as well.
Hirokawa has now said the punishment the officers received was just, but his changed position is reluctant and late. The racist texts by the Santa Clara County deputies were not just a problem; they were obviously a problem. And the fact that Hirokawa did not see it that way right away is a problem too.
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