Who is John Motto? Ex-cop asks Black man to go to his 'cage', calls him N-word in racist rant over accident
John Motto, a former LAPD officer, is having all the cases of his entire career reviewed after he was caught on camera, hurling racist abuses at a Black man. The incident happened following a minor traffic collision and has now prompted the response of the authorities who want to go through the officer's old cases to check whether racist bias affected them.
Who is John Motto?
The retired LAPD cop identified from the video calling a Black offensive slurs is John Motto. He was a homicide detective whose entire career and past cases are after review for glaring racial profiling subjected from him to a Black man following a car accident. The incident happened in Santa Clarita, California, last weekend, and saw Motto hurling racial slurs which were caught on camera.
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Motto was seen calling the Black man a "dumb (N-word)" during an argument immediately after what has been described as a minor traffic collision. Motto is currently not a member of the force, as reported by the LAPD. He had retired back in May 2020 as a detective with the Operations Central Bureau Homicide.
LAPD cop hurls racial slurs in video
The footage obtained by the LAPD shows the heated moments following the car accident between Motto and another unnamed Black driver. According to Motto, the other driver used the N-word first, which made him feel it was okay to use it. The video, however, also sees Motto telling the Black man, "Go back into your little cage until the monkey controller gets here." He then used the N-word once again to insult the other man.
As of now, the LA district attorney's office will be reviewing around 370 cases from Motto's past, "presumably to see if there's any evidence racial bias might have affected," reports TMZ.
LAPD reviewing John Motto's cases
Following the video of the incident reaching the authorities, the Los Angeles Police Department claims to have launched an internal investigation "to ensure there is no current Department nexus to this incident." It adds, "What is seen in the video is not reflective of the thousands of hard-working and dedicated men and women of the Los Angeles Police Department.
News of Motto's actions and the imminent aftermath of it comes in the wake of the George Floyd protests going on in Minneapolis currently as his 'killer cop' Derek Chauvin faces trial for first-degree murder. Chauvin's defense team has argued that in the wake of the record-breaking settlement the city gave Floyd's surviving family, it will be impossible for the former Minneapolis cop to get a fair trial in the city. Demanding a delay in trial and change of venue, Chauvin's defense team is trying to get a jury selected that's unbiased given the sensitive nature of the case and the nationwide protests it sparked.
Motto's shameful behavior caught on camera also comes just a week after the anniversary of the shooting of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was fatally shot in her sleep by officers who entered forcibly the apartment as part of an investigation into drug dealing operations.