Scott Glover and Dan Simon, CNN, April , 2016
“I hate that beaner,” one text reads, “but I think the nig is worse.”
“Indian ppl are disgusting,” proclaims another.
“Burn down walgreens and kill the bums,” a third message states.
These and numerous other racist and homophobic text messages were allegedly sent by a San Francisco police officer at the center of an ongoing scandal that is the most recent disturbing revelation for the beleaguered SFPD.
CNN has exclusively obtained a list of dozens of offensive texts sent to and from Officer Jason Lai. {snip}
Lai resigned from the department earlier this month, according to a police spokesman.
In addition to disparaging blacks, Hispanics and Indians, Lai used coded language to talk about gay officers, according to a source, and made a blanket statement impugning residents of the city’s largely minority and low-income Tenderloin district.
“They’re all drug dealers in the TL,” his text stated.
{snip}
In the messages, Lai makes a disparaging joke about President Obama and says he hates basketball player LeBron James.
“F— that nig,” he says.
{snip}
Lai, who was identified as Chinese by his attorney, makes several references to “hock gwai,” apparently a misspelled reference to the Cantonese “hak gwai,” a derogatory phrase for African Americans.
In a series of texts sent last June he describes an incident involving a “bunch of hock gwais shooting each other.”
“Sprained my ankle over these barbarians,” he says.
One of the suspects “went to the hospital after he got shot lol,” the officer texted.
“Too bad none of them died,” he added. “One less to worry about.”
{snip}
In another exchange referencing African Americans, Lai wrote: “They’re like a pack [of] wild animals on the loose.”
The exchange happened during a night of civil unrest in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray. Gray, an African American, died after suffering head and neck injuries in the back of a police van.
