SEATTLE — Six patrol officers with the Lone Star's Patrol Division have been terminated in connection with the discovery of racist comments over official communication channels, sources confirm.
Audio and video recordings as well as text messages were found during an investigation into security drone camera misuse by former Lone Star employee Seth Emerson.
In November, Emerson was accused of using a security drone to track an individual.
He was eventually charged with illegally accessing corporate systems without appropriate access, corporate fraud, corporate reputational damage, egregious waste of corporate resources and violation of the terms of corporate employement. The city of Seattle is also charging him with stalking, abuse of authority under color of law, deprivation of rights under color of law, criminal mischief and criminal wiretapping.
Sources told NewsNet that the racist messages were discovered as part of that investigation. While conversing with the other officers, Emerson raged against metahumans in general using language that is considered extremely derogatory. Not satisfied with just metahumans, he railed against immigrants to Seattle, citizens of the Salish-Shidhe council, the Japanese and, for some reason, anyone driving internal combustion engine vehicles.
At one point, a chorus of agreement came from the other officers when Emerson stated, on an open channel, that anyone not originally from Seattle should be dumped into Puget Sound. It should be noted that Emerson is originally from Dallas, Texas, CAS.
Lone Star released a statement addressing the Seattle-based allegations, saying:
“Lone Star remains unwavering in its commitment to uphold the highest standards of integrity, professionalism, and service. We will not tolerate any behavior that contradicts our core values or jeopardizes the trust we have built with the community we serve.
The citizens of Seattle, every client that signs on with us and their lawful guests are at the heart of our mission, and we take pride in our longstanding track record of fostering meaningful relationships that strengthen public trust.
The president of the Mothers of Metahumans, Fern Paterson, says representatives of Lone Star called her yesterday to inform her about the situation.
Paterson said she is disturbed by the messages and wants the matter taken further. She wants the officers involved to have their law enforcement certifications revoked.
Paterson said it is distressing that someone in a position of authority would speak that way.
“I don’t want to paint all of law enforcement with the same brush, but clearly, I’m concerned that you have bigots in uniform with contracted state authority. And unfortunately, they can cost a person their life,” Paterson said.
The next steps will be for the Lone Star Internal Affairs to conclude their investigation with all evidence being turned over to the internal arbitrator. Seattle has officially requested extradition for the 6 known employees involved in this incident for criminal prosecution. Lone Star is not expected to fight that extradition.
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