Thread by @reveal

1/ NEW INVESTIGATION: Hundreds of active-duty and retired law enforcement officers from across the U.S. were members of Confederate, anti-Islam, misogynistic or anti-government militia groups on @Facebook. revealnews.org/article/inside…

2/ These cops have worked at every level of American law enforcement, from tiny, rural sheriff’s departments to the largest agencies in the country, such as @Chicago_Police and @NYPDNews.

3/ They work in jails and schools and airports, on boats and trains, and in patrol cars.

And they read and contributed to groups like “White Lives Matter,” and “DEATH TO ISLAM UNDERCOVER.”

4/ U.S. law enforcement officers have long been associated with or suspected of being members of extremist groups. Some recent examples, via @AP, @NBCNews and @TheIntercept:

apnews.com/241443b1c69a48…

nbcnews.com/news/us-news/d…

theintercept.com/2017/01/31/the…

5/ Our investigation, for the first time, shows how officers in agencies across the country have *actively joined* closed hate groups, participating in the spread of extremism on @Facebook.

Here are a few examples of what this looks like:

6/ One guard at the Angola prison in Louisiana, Geoffery Crosby, is a member of 56 extremist groups, including 45 Confederate groups, and one called “BAN THE NAACP.”

7/ At least six active and retired police officers, from Maryland, Texas, Missouri, New York, Arizona and California, were members of another group called “Anti-SJW Pinochet’s Helicopter Pilot Academy,” until it disappeared from Facebook earlier this month.

8/ The group’s name showcases the wordplay central to the white supremacists’ rebranding as the “alt-right.”

It refers to the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who had his political opponents thrown out of helicopters into the Pacific Ocean.

9/ We provided @NYPDNews with posts from Officer Randy Paulsaint, a member of 13 groups committed to the anti-feminist Men Going Their Own Way movement.

10/ The groups contain memes depicting women as evil, greedy and jealous. In one, someone posted a meme about a woman asking for a Christmas present. In the comments, Paulsaint inserted a gif of a man kicking a woman in the head.

11/ Police disciplinary records are secret in most states, making it difficult to
draw a connection between Facebook extremism and offline policing.

12/ However, we found public documents that showed some of the officers we identified via Facebook had also been involved in real-life instances of alleged racism or other misconduct.

13/ Take Will Weisenberger, a member of a closed group called “White Lives Matter.”

He’s also currently a deputy at the Madison County Sheriff’s Department in Mississippi.

14/ The Abbeville Police Department in Georgia hasn’t responded to multiple phone calls and emails about one of its officers, Joel Quinn, frequently featuring conspiracy theories and anti-Islam posts on his personal Facebook wall.

15/ Then there’s corrections officer Sheldon Best:

16/ More than 50 departments launched internal investigations after being presented with our findings, in some cases saying they would examine officers’ past conduct to see if their online activity mirrored their policing in real life. And some have taken action.

17/ This is the first installment of an ongoing series on this issue. Stay tuned for the next installment soon.

And for all of our latest investigations, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter: revealnews.org/newsletter