Wilmington cops who said they can't wait to 'slaughter' Black people fired: 'Wipe them off the f****** map'
WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA: Disturbing conversations between a group of Wilmington police officers which was accidentally recorded on one of their car's camera system, caught the cops repeatedly using racial slurs, and at one point, while refering to a civil war they said that they would: "Go out and start slaughtering them f******* n******. I can’t wait. God, I can’t wait."
The conversations between the officers, identified as Michael ‘Kevin’ Piner, James ‘Brian’ Gilmore and Jessie E. Moore II, were discovered by a supervisor conducting a routine audit who came across a file labeled 'accidental activations' from Piner's car, reported Port City Daily. The officer's car had been recording despite not being "activated," and after skipping through large portions of the video that just showed the back seat, the supervisor found a conversation between Piner and Moore where she "heard comments, extremely racist comments."
Those conversations were discovered on June 4, just days after protests broke out in the city over the Memorial Day death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in the custody of four Minneapolis police officers. However, officials are still considering whether it is "safe to release the recording" for public consideration.
"Their conversation eventually turned to the topic of the protests against racism occurring across the nation," an investigation summary stated. "Piner tells Gilmore that the only thing this agency is concerned with is 'kneeling down with the black folks.' Gilmore then said that he watched a video on social media about white people bowing down on their knees and 'worshipping blacks.'"
They eventually turned their attention to black officers in the Wilmington Police Department. Piner can be heard calling one of the officers "bad news" and a "piece of s***" before quipping, "Let’s see how his boys take care of him when shit gets rough, see if they don’t put a bullet in his head."
Another conversation recorded later the same day involved Moore telling Piner about an arrest he made and referring to the female suspect as a "n*gro" and "n*****" repeatedly. "She needed a bullet in her head right then and move on. Let’s move the body out of the way and keep going," he says at one point. He goes on to refer to a black magistrate judge as a "f****** n*gro magistrate."
Piner then shared his belief that a civil war was coming and that he was "ready" for it. "Piner advised he is going to buy a new assault rifle in the next couple of weeks," the investigation summary said. "A short time later Officer Piner began to discuss society being close to ‘martial law’ and soon 'we are just gonna go out and start slaughtering them fucking n******. I can’t wait. God, I can’t wait."
All the officers involved in the incident admitted it had been their voice in the recording. Asked for an explanation, they pointed to "the stress of today’s climate in law enforcement as a reason for their 'venting.'"
Wilmington Chief of Police Donny Williams, who has almost 30 years of service under his belt, announced earlier this week that all three officers had been terminated from the force. He had been the chief for less than 24 hours.
"Today is a challenging day for me because as your police chief, one of my first major tasks is to announce the termination of three veteran police officers," Williams said at a press conference, where members of the City Council were also in attendance.
He said he was deeply saddened by the officers' actions but had no tolerance for such behavior. And while public record laws in North Carolina usually prevent government agencies from releasing information on personnel, he said he had done so because these were extraordinary circumstances.
"Normally, personnel laws allow only a very small amount of information to be made public," he said. "However, in exceptional cases, when it is essential to maintain public confidence in the administration of the City and the Police Department, more information may be released. This is the most exceptional and difficult case I have encountered in my career. We must establish new reforms for policing here at home and throughout this country."
Williams also said the police would be working with a judge to determine if footage of the officers' conversations could be released to the public.