After a second photo surfaced this week of a St. Paul police officer dressed in a Muslim woman’s clothing, apparently for Halloween in both cases, Police Chief Thomas Smith has ordered an internal affairs investigation and is planning changes in the department.
Smith said officers will be retrained in cultural matters. He also has recorded a message to be circulated department-wide about the oath of office that officers took, conduct unbecoming an officer, and the dangers of officers using social media.
“I don’t care if they’re on duty or off duty, anything that can reflect poorly on the image of this department or this city, it’s not going to be tolerated,” Smith said Friday, Feb. 8. “They can have private lives, but they’re still officers and they have to earn that badge every day.”
The new photo that came to light shows a man wearing a hijab, a covering some Muslim women wear, and what appears to be brown paint covering his face. The photo was posted on the Facebook page of someone named Jim Lee in October 2010 and seems to have been taken at a Halloween gathering.
A St. Paul police officer is named Jim Lee, but police aren’t saying whether he’s the man in the photo. Lee became an officer in January 2010, is assigned to patrol in the Western District, has no record of disciplinary action, and has four thank-you letters in his personnel file.
Police said Monday that an internal affairs investigation was under way since an earlier photo came to light.
It showed a man wearing a red hijab with a Target name tag on it last October. Officer Robert Buth issued an apology Tuesday, saying the picture was taken at a private Halloween party on personal time. Buth occasionally worked as an off-duty officer at the Midway Target in St. Paul. “I apologize to anyone who may have been offended by the recently publicized photo,” Buth said in the statement. He said he regrets that the image “may have been viewed to be insensitive to the Muslim community.”
Mukhtar Ibrahim, a Washington, D.C.-based journalist who used to live in St. Paul, had asked St. Paul police about the first photo. He did the same Friday morning about the second photo.
“I want to know if this man in the photo could b one of your officers?” Ibrahim tweeted to the police department. Police responded to him via Twitter, “Chief Smith is very aware of this photo. He is taking swift action looking into the matter. Thank you”
Someone had created a Twitter account, @anonymo73515809, and directed a photo to Ibrahim on Twitter on Wednesday, saying the person pictured is a police officer.
Ibrahim said he doesn’t know why these photos are coming to light now. “That’s the puzzle and mystery,” he said.
City council member Melvin Carter said in a statement Friday: “The actions of the officers depicted in these photos are offensive and embarrassing. Mocking culture, skin color and religion for a laugh may seem trivial, but any behavior that violates the sacred, essential trust between our officers and residents is reckless and inexcusable.”
Police have been reaching out to the community, especially those of Somali descent, since the first photo surfaced, Smith said. On Friday, an assistant police chief went to a St. Paul mosque and spoke with about 200 people. Police spokesman Howie Padilla, who was also there, said they received a positive reception.
“I don’t want the actions of a couple to tarnish all of the work that we have done with our diverse communities for quite some time,” Smith said.
The department asks people from various ethnic groups and communities to teach officers about their cultures and traditions during the police academy and yearly in-service training. Smith said planning was already in the works for additional training, and it should be implemented in the first quarter of this year.
After the first photo made the rounds on social media, five people wrote an editorial online, found at http://bit.ly/hijabeditorial.
“Wearing culturally specific and revered expressions of identity as a costume is an offensive act and an expression of white privilege,” wrote the four women and one man who are members of the East African community. “These ‘costumes’ perpetuate racial and cultural stereotypes, reduce entire communities to a set of props and qualities, and result in cultural appropriation and misrepresentation.”
Because it involved an officer, the group also wrote, “As a result, community members may believe that there’s no point in reporting crimes since those tasked with protecting us may have a bias or question if officers take the concerns from the community seriously.”
St. Paul Police Federation President Dave Titus said Friday that the two photos are not connected and that no member of the police union “meant any disrespect to anyone.”
“St. Paul police officers bring a level of professionalism to the job, as high as you will find anywhere in the country,” he said in a statement. “Officers also have personal lives, just as any citizen. Halloween to most is about being something you are not, laughing at one’s self and individual expression. Many Halloween customs could be considered offensive; that does not mean the custom was created with ill intentions. No disrespect was intended.”