Editorial: Racist remarks demand urgent APD response

For years, it seems, no one said a thing. What should we make of that silence?

The latest allegations to roil the Austin Police Department, that Assistant Chief Justin Newsom used the n-word and other racist language over the past decade, go deeper than one man’s faults. If true, these allegations speak to a culture at APD that allowed racially offensive conduct by a member of the top brass to go unreported for so long.

The accusations against Newsom are particularly damaging for a department that has a troubled history with African Americans and Latinos. They tarnish an agency that is already trying to rebuild trust with the community.

City Manager Spencer Cronk made the right call in quickly pledging to hire an independent investigator to examine Newsom’s conduct and APD’s handling of it. The public needs a full, authoritative account of what happened.

Clearly some of Newsom’s alleged comments predate Chief Brian Manley taking the reins of the department last year, but the buck now stops with the chief. It is Manley’s job to cultivate a sense of accountability within the APD ranks, to ensure that no one feels emboldened to make racist jokes and everyone feels a duty to report such misconduct. In this particular case, he failed to respond with urgency at the first signs of trouble.

Newsom, who is white, abruptly retired last month as complaints he used racist language were surfacing. He later acknowledged using “inappropriate language in private conversations with friends,” though he says he doesn’t remember the specific incidents cited in an anonymous complaint, that he used the n-word to describe former Assistant Chief Frank Dixon, former Council Member Ora Houston and others.

Newsom suggested his offensive comments behind closed doors don’t reflect his values or his work at APD. He is wrong. Racism is not a private vice. It’s a public corrosive.

The damage is compounded when racism infects the work of police officers who are entrusted with tremendous powers, including the right to use force and the discretion to take people to jail. As we’ve noted before, the ability of police officers to prevent and solve crimes relies heavily on trust with the public. That trust shatters if officers are perceived to be anything but even-handed.

Recognizing that, Manley should have taken a more urgent interest when the concerns about Newsom first bubbled up. Instead, as the Statesman’s Tony Plohetski reported Wednesday, Manley did not press for details when Newsom alerted his boss in late September that he was accused of sending a problematic text message that could be aired in a disciplinary hearing involving another officer. The chief instead told Newsom to discuss the issue with city attorneys handling the hearing.

We understand that Manley wanted to avoid discussing issues with Newsom before they both testified at the hearing. But the chief lost sight of his more pressing duty to protect the integrity of the department. He should have asked Newsom for the text message and referred the matter to the Office of Police Oversight that moment, instead of weeks later when an anonymous email raised similar concerns.

The five-week delay in determining the validity of the complaints allowed Newsom to retire with full benefits, including about $137,000 in unused sick leave ― undermining the very culture of accountability needed at APD.

The accusations against Newsom damage the credibility of a department striving to build trust with the public after other troubling, high-profile incidents: An officer throwing Breaion King to the ground during a traffic stop, with another officer telling King that police are sometimes wary of black people because of their “violent tendencies.” The fatal shooting of African-American teen David Joseph, who was unarmed and having a mental health crisis. Reports showing Austin police are more likely to use force in areas where blacks and Hispanics live, use greater levels of force against minorities, and are twice as likely to search a person of color during a traffic stop than a white person. The missteps in the early stages of the Austin bombing investigation, when police wrongly suggested the first bomb that killed a black father was meant for a drug dealer, or was a suicide.

With palpable exasperation, Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison said the disturbing allegations about Newsom reflect the lived experience of black and Latino Austinites.

“Racism is prevalent in Austin,” Harper-Madison said at a press conference last Friday in City Hall. Then she repeated even louder: “Racism is prevalent in Austin!”

Austin’s police chief and police force need to feel that sense of outrage and urgency in their bones. Then they need to act on it.