Three police officers in North Carolina have lost their jobs after accidentally recording their own highly inflammatory conversations, in which they are heard discussing “slaughtering n****rs” and calling for a new Civil War.
Officers Kevin Piner, James Gilmore, and Jessie Moore were fired from the Wilmington Police Department on Wednesday, following an internal probe that revealed the three had inadvertently captured shocking racist remarks and praise for racial violence on dash cam video.
Soon after protests over the police killing of George Floyd kicked off in Wilmington earlier this month, a WPD officer tasked with monthly audits of dash cam footage stumbled upon what was deemed an “accidental activation” from Piner’s car, according to a summary of the probe.
In the first of two conversations, Piner is heard complaining to Gilmore that their department is preoccupied with “kneeling down with the black folks.” Later, Piner hits out at black WPD officers, calling one “bad news” and a “piece of s**t.”
“Let’s see how his boys take care of him when s**t gets rough, see if they don’t put a bullet in his head,” Piner said of his fellow officer.
The second of the two conversations is even more explicit, with Piner telling Moore that he believes another “Civil War” is coming and that he is “ready” for it. When the discussion turns to “martial law,” Piner says “we are just gonna go out and start slaughtering them f***ing n****rs. I can’t wait. God, I can’t wait.”
Though Moore replied that he would not do such a thing and called Piner “crazy,” in an earlier portion of the video – after Piner referred to a local black judge as a “f***ing n**ro magistrate” – Moore says the judge “needed a bullet in her head right then and move on. Let’s move the body out of the way and keep going.”
Piner is also heard elaborating that society required a new civil war to “wipe ‘em off the f***ing map. That’ll put ’em back about four or five generations,” apparently referring to black Americans.
According to the WPD investigation, the three veteran officers did not dispute that their voices are heard in the recordings. “They did not deny saying any of the things heard on the video. Each officer pointed to the stress of today’s climate in law enforcement as a reason for their ‘venting,’” the department said.
Responding to the scandal, WPD chief Donny Williams – who was just sworn in to the position on Tuesday – said that in addition to firing the three officers, he had recommended they be permanently barred from working for the city and also notified the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission of their conduct. The local district attorney will also now review previous cases in which the officers provided testimony, he said.
“Why are we releasing this information this way and at this time? Because it is the right thing to do,” Williams said in a statement, adding “This is the most exceptional and difficult case I have encountered in my career. We must establish new reforms for policing here at home and throughout this country.”
The police chief stressed that the three cops’ actions should not reflect on the whole department or the hundreds of other officers who work there, however, a point echoed by Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo.
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