Louisville Metro Police officers videotaped themselves throwing drinks at pedestrians from police cars, called Black people racial slurs and insulted people with disabilities, according to a Department of Justice probe.
The report, published Wednesday, alleges that officers “practiced an aggressive style of policing that it deploys selectively, especially against Black people, but also against vulnerable people throughout the city.”
The DOJ investigation continued: “Some officers have videotaped themselves throwing drinks at pedestrians from their cars; insulted people with disabilities; and called Black people ‘monkeys,’ ‘animal,’ and ‘boy.'”
The behavior, which went on for years, “erodes community trust, and the unlawful practices of LMPD and Louisville Metro undermine public safety,” investigators concluded.
The Justice Department mentioned an incident where a police officer used a swear word and called Black men “monkeys” but was not disciplined because he retired. It also cited a remark one of the men made to WDRB, a local news station that reported on the incident.
“He said ‘monkey’ like that meant something to him, like old times back in the 40s and 50s, like, ‘I’m insulting you and I want you to know it,'” Marcel Williams Jr. told the station.
In another episode examined in the DOJ report, a white officer dragged a 20-year-old Black man suspected of crashing a stolen car along the ground, saying he would “drag you through the fucking dirt like an animal if you don’t want to move.” The Justice Department said the officer was verbally reprimanded, but investigators didn’t ask whether the use of the word “animal” reflected racial bias.
In another incident where an officer described a Black teenager as a “wild animal that needs to be put down,” the Justice Department said the department’s investigators asked leading questions, such as, “are you describing the person or the behavior?” and “so you’re not racist by any means?”
The federal investigation also found that Louisville police mistreated people with mental health issues. “Officers called an unhoused white woman who had just injured herself in the midst of crisis ‘an idiot,’ ‘dumbass,’ and a ‘fucking retard,'” the report said.
Louisville police also recorded themselves on their cell phones throwing drinks at pedestrians in 2019 and 2018, according to the report. Detectives drove slowly near residents then announced over police radio that “someone was thirsty” and hurled large drinks at people on the street. Officers shared these videos with other members of their unit, and in 2022 two detectives plead guilty to civil rights violations for engaging in the behavior.
The DOJ probe found a variety of evidence that officers were violating citizens’ constitutional rights and that multiple instances of police abuse largely went unpunished. The probe was first announced in April 2021, more than a year after the March 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville.
The Louisville police department released a statement from Interim Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel in response to the DOJ investigation, saying the department “will continue our efforts in improving public safety in Louisville and making LMPD the premiere police department in the country.”
Gwinn-Villaroel added that the “process of reform is complex and will require sustained effort.”
“Improvement will not occur overnight and will require clear goals and objectives. To this end, we are committed to work collaboratively and earnestly with all necessary parties,” the statement read.
