Connecticut officials are investigating what appears to be a racist memo sent to Bridgeport police by one of their own — a screed printed on official letterhead and delivered to mailboxes at police headquarters.
Copies of the letter were discovered in internal mailboxes in an area limited to police, Bridgeport police Det. Harold Dimbo told NBC Connecticut. It is addressed to the police chief and opens: "WHITE POWER." The letter singles out a specific African-American officer who was cleared of police brutality in a case stemming from a few years ago and states, "These Black Officers belong in the toilet."
"You better watch your back," the letter tells the officer. "We know where you live."
"Bottom line is that any discussion of discrimination within any part of the city is something we have a zero-tolerance policy on," Brett Broesder, the city's communications director, told NBC Connecticut. "If there is any wrongdoing found in the situation, swift, fair, immediate action will be taken."
Broesder added in a statement Wednesday that there is an active investigation at the state level, "so everything is in question: (the memo's) authenticity, the motive and every part of the development and distribution of it."
The Bridgeport Guardians, a group representing minority officers, said during a news conference Wednesday that there have been two other letters received in the past year, not exactly the same "but showing hatred." An attorney for the group, Tom Busey, said they support the state police department investigation. " It's positive ... It's 2015 and in a coincidence, it's Black History Month," Busey said.
— M. Alex Johnson