A civil rights investigation into a California police department and numerous racist texts exchanged between officers over a three-year period ended with a settlement with the Department of Justice outlining a few measures the police force must implement. The Antioch Police Department will have to hire a consulting firm to review and improve its policies on hiring and training, use of force, community policing, non-discriminatory policing, and misconduct investigations, among other areas. The agency must also submit to federal monitoring for the next five years. The Antioch Police Department in Northern California. (Photo: Google Maps) The settlement comes after a nearly two-year investigation that began in April 2023 when the Contra Costa County district attorney released racist and homophobic text messages that were sent between 2019 and 2022 in a chat group shared by 17 Antioch officers. In those texts, the group members bragged about beating Black suspects and manufacturing evidence, called Black people gorillas, monkeys, and the N-word, and even suggested shooting former Antioch Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe, who is Black, with a “less lethal” weapon such as a gun that fires rubber bullets. “I’ll bury that n—-r in my fields,” texted one sergeant to an officer in December 2020. Earlier that year, an officer texted another fellow officer, “No they didn’t push it that far. Bunch of gorillas surrounding us and taunting a fight since we were hooking [epithet].” Those messages and more were unearthed during an FBI investigation that led to four indictments against several police officers in Antioch and the nearby town of Pittsburgh who were accused of illegally distributing drugs, faking records to get pay raises, and improperly siccing dogs on unarmed residents. Eight Antioch officers were also placed on administrative leave after the texts were revealed and three were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to “injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate” residents. The public release of the texts also spurred on a civil rights lawsuit filed in April 2023 by a group of Black Antioch citizens who all alleged that the officers committed serious misconduct and discriminatory offenses during the time the racist texts were exchanged. One defendant stated he was beaten savagely by an Antioch cop in 2021 who later bragged to his fellow officers in the chat group about the incident. The cop called the defendant the n-word and said he gave him “6 muzzle thumps,” attempted to “kick his head over the fence,” and “tried to knock him unconscious.” The lawsuit is still ongoing, but a few parties have settled, NBC News reported. “Fair and non-discriminatory policing is fundamental to effective law enforcement, especially for those agencies that receive federal funding,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Adding, “In working with the Justice Department to institute policing reform, Antioch Police Department sends a strong message that the discrimination and misconduct that prompted this investigation will not be tolerated. The agreement we have secured will ensure that Antioch’s policing practices are free from discrimination in the road ahead — the community deserves nothing less.” Hernandez-Thorpe sent a statement to The New York Times sharing his approval of the deal, stating it met its goal of “reforming the culture of racism” that affected the police department for decades. Once the texts came to light and indictments were filed, the force was slashed in half and is currently resorting to financial incentives to attract new officers. According to 2023 Census data, Antioch had a population of more than 117,000 people, nearly 30 percent of whom were white, 36 percent Latino, and 19 percent were Black. ‘Bunch of Gorillas’: California Police Force Must Submit to Federal Monitoring for Five Years After Cops Were Exposed for Trading Racist Texts Bragging About Brutalizing Black Residents