Glenn Beck was right--the events in Ferguson really have brought out the best in people. Let's take, for example, a police officer from Baton Rouge who resigned on Thursday after a local news channel reported that he had sent a series of violently racist text messages, including one in which he said he wished his fellow officers would "pull a Ferguson" on a "bunch of monkeys."
The police officer in question is 15-year veteran of the force Michael Elsbury who resigned after the texts were shown to his superiors. In another text, he wrote, "I wish someone would pull a Ferguson on them and take them out. I hate looking at those African monkeys at work... I enjoy arresting those thugs with their saggy pants."
Raw Story's Scott Kaufman reports:
After WBRZ reported on the text messages, [a] friend turned her phone over to the police, who spent two days combing through it in order to authenticate the messages. At 6:15 p.m. on Wednesday night, the Baton Rouge Police Department had collected enough evidence to place Officer Elsbury on administrative leave.
On Thursday afternoon, he tendered his resignation.
Police Chief Carl Dabadie said that "it was gut-wrenching to believe that someone had that much hate in them, especially a police officer who is out there enforcing the law every day. It made me sick to my stomach." Chief Dabadie said that he understands how an incident like this could "cast a bad light" on the entire department, but hopes the community can appreciate the alacrity with which the incident was handled.
"I believe this is an isolated incident that occurred between the officer and this girl," Dabadie said. "I do not want this to become a direct reflection on our officers. I have 650 officers, and 649 of them work their butts off every day for the city of Baton Rouge."
Elsbury is also the subject of a criminal investigation, according to a police spokesperson.
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