Authorities are investigating after a racist memo printed on official letterhead was placed in mailboxes at Bridgeport police headquarters, slandering minority officers and singling out one who was recently cleared of police brutality charges.
The Bridgeport Guardians, a minority officers' organization, addressed the letter in a news conference Wednesday morning. Det. Harold Dimbo, vice president of the group and a 27-year veteran of the police department, said the "racial, insensitive and threatening" letter is the most recent of at least three hateful notes to circulate within the department over the past year.
"Something like this coming through the police department, it just never should have happened," Dimbo said Wednesday. "This type of behavior affects a minority and spreads racism and hatred throughout the Bridgeport Police Department as well as the community."
Dimbo said copies of the letter were discovered in multiple officers' mailboxes and the principal internal mailbox. He believes a member of the department generated the memo and that it ended up in the main mailbox by mistake.
The letter, printed on paper marked with the department's official letterhead, is addressed to Bridgeport Police Chief Joseph Gaudett and starts off with "WHITE POWER." It goes on to say "Officer Clive Higgins doesn't belong here in this Police Department" and "These Black Officers belong in the toilet."
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Higgins was recently acquitted in a 2011 police brutality case in which officers were caught on camera beating a suspect at Beardsley Park and shooting him with a stun gun. Two other officers were convicted, but a federal jury found Higgins not guilty last month.
"He's not getting his gun or his badge back. He didn't even support his fellow Officers in Court," the letter continues. "Where were you Higgins ?? You better watch your back.. We know where you live."
The letter alleges both the chief and assistant chief want Higgins out of the department. Dimbo said Gaudett is investigating the incident.
"We will support Chief Gaudett and find out who this person is or individuals, and we would love to see them out of the police department," Dimbo said, "because this does not just hurt the police department's image, it's also going to the community that we have to worry about."
He added that "if a person is walking around in the police department with this type of hatred in them," it creates concern over the safety of minorities in the community. Dimbo said he has received hundreds of calls from worried community members.
Attorney Tom Bucci, who is representing the Bridgeport Guardians, said that the organization will be monitoring any investigation into the issue.
"These letters were abhorrent and intolerable, especially in 2015 in an urban police department," Bucci said. "The Guardians want to acknowledge that the majority of the Bridgeport police officers find this intolerable... it's the few that spew this hateful language that must be isolated because they have no place in a police organization."
Bucci said that if the Guardians don't believe the issue is being properly investigated, the organization will seek legal "remedies."
Brett Broesder, communications director for the city of Bridgeport, said officials are prepared to take action against whoever is behind the derogatory note.
"Bottom line is that any discussion of discrimination within any part of the city is something we have a zero-tolerance policy on," Broesder said. "If there is any wrongdoing found in the situation, swift, fair, immediate action will be taken."
The National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers is also supporting the Bridgeport Guardians on the issue. National president Hubert Smith called for an outside investigation into the incident and demanded the "immediate termination" of all involved in "perpetrating these acts of domestic, racial terrorism and violence."
Higgins' attorney declined to comment on the letter.
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