St. Louis Police Officer Suspended After Racist Video Emerges
A St. Louis County police officer, who was seen earlier this week attempting to shut down Don Lemon's live broadcast on CNN, has been suspended after a video emerged in which he made racist, inflammatory remarks.
The video, which the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports was made in 2012 in front of a group called the Oath Keepers of St. Louis and St. Charles, shows officer Dan Page making disturbing remarks about Muslims ("Muslims are passive until they gain parity with you or they exceed you in numbers and they will kill you"), President Barack Obama, and killing, saying "I'm into diversity. I kill everybody. I don't care":
"I've killed a lot. And if I need to, I'll kill a whole bunch more. If you don't want to get killed, don't show up in front of me. I have no problems with it. God did not raise me to be a coward."
During a slideshow displaying images from a recent trip to Kenya, he says:
"I said 'I wanna go find where that illegal alien claiming to be my president, my undocumented president, lives at.'"
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Page, who has been with the department for 35 years, has been suspended pending a review by the internal affairs unit. "With the comments on killing," Belmar said, "that was obviously something that deeply disturbed me immediately." Belmar issued a public apology for the video on Friday, saying:
"[I] apologize to the community and anybody who is offended by these remarks, and understand from me that he ... does not represent the rank-and-file of the St. Louis County Police Department."
Belmar has also ordered a psychological evaluation of Page.
[image via YouTube]