Last month, we reported the story of now-former Houston Police Department officer Ashley Gonzalez, the loud and proud racist, who recorded herself gleefully slinging around racial slurs while ranting about how much she hates Black people, takes great joy in committing acts of police brutality against them, and about how she would arrest Black people on sight for no other reason but because she hates them and because she can.
Gonzalez was eventually fired over the video, and, apparently, she’s not very happy about it. In fact, Gonzalez is so eager to get back to her career in passionately hating Black people for a living that she is appealing her termination, according to KHOU 11. Houston Police Officers Union President Doug Griffith confirmed the filing of the appeal on Tuesday.
Now, obviously, a lot of us are wondering what there is to appeal. It’s not like there’s more than one way to interpret “I f–king hate n—–s” or “I f–king hate chimps” or “Y’all don’t know how good it felt to say n—-r out loud like goddamn, n—-r.”
It would be pretty difficult for her to argue she’s not a danger to the quarter of the Houston population, who are Black, after she excitedly said, “I grabbed that n—-r by the neck and I was like, ‘Come here you f—–g n—-r,’ and oh, my God, I felt like the world just stopped. It was just peace.”
Are we to believe racial profiling and false arrests wouldn’t happen under a cop who explicitly said, “Let me get a f—-g Black person on a 911 call tomorrow…bitch, you’re f—-g going to jail” regardless if they were guilty of anything or not?
In fact, it’s because of statements like the aforementioned that officials are having to pore through Gonzalez’s past cases to make sure she hadn’t already put her words into action.
Not long after her video went viral, Houston City Council Member Alejandra Salinas posted a statement to social media saying she wanted HPD to “closely review any prior arrests, reports, and testimony tied to this officer to determine whether a pattern of racial bias impacted past cases and whether any Houstonians’ rights were violated.” Then the Harris County District Attorney’s Office began reviewing cases involving Gonzalez.
“These cases that we are reviewing have more to do than just race; they have to do with the credibility of this officer to be a truthteller, to come to court and to be relied on in her statements regarding her decisions, discretionary decisions to arrest individuals and tell us as a community the truth about what she deserved,” KHOU 11 legal analyst Carmen Roe said.
Unfortunately, even if she isn’t able to get her job back at HPD, it doesn’t mean she can’t still be a racist cop elsewhere.
From KHOU:
Retired HPD Captain Dr. Greg Fremin has more than 30 years of service with HPD and, at one point, worked in the internal affairs department. added that despite her firing, Gonzalez does still have a Texas peace officer certification because it is up to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement to revoke it.
“Without a criminal conviction or something of that type of nature, she’ll still have a state certification,” Fremin said. “But I suspect that there will be a huge outcry to certain political entities within Austin to look at this very closely, because, is there a possibility she can be hired by another agency? Absolutely. There could be. What agency would do that? I don’t know.”
Oh, my sweet summer child…
As I wrote in our previous report: “Over the years, we’ve published several stories about police officers who lost their jobs after getting caught in racist recordings, posting racism on social media, or committing racist acts against Black civilians, only to be hired by another police department, often within the same state.”
So, even if her appeal to get her job back at HPD is rejected, which it likely will be, it’s not at all far-fetched to fear she will find another job that will give her a badge and a gun and send her off to police the very people she hates, enjoys seeing physically harmed, and would arrest just because of the color of their skin — all by her own admission.
And that, my friends, is why we say it’s never just about one individual cop; it’s about the system of policing as a whole. It’s a rotten orchard, not just a few bad apples.
SEE ALSO:
Racist Houston Cop Relieved Of Duties After Viral N-Word-Laced Rant
LAPD Caught In Racist Recording Scandal
Memphis Cop Under Fire For Racist Comments
Michigan Cop Blames Police Violence On ‘Too Many Minorities’
