"The posts came to light as part of the work of the Plain View Project, a group of lawyers that began monitoring the social media accounts of Philadelphia officers in the fall of 2017 in order to assess whether the officers’ online behavior eroded public trust in the police force.

"The group began its work after it found posts where “officers commented that apprehended suspects—often black men— ‘should be dead’ or ‘should have more lumps on his head.’

"In other Facebook conversations, officers advocated shooting looters on sight and using cars to run over protestors,” the group’s website says. “Numerous posts deemed Islam ‘a cult, not a religion’ and referred to Muslims as ‘savages’ and ‘goat-humpers.’ And, in still others, officers appeared to joke about beating and raping women.”

"What the advocacy group ended up collecting was staggering, and the Philadelphia police department has now hired a law firm to sift through some 3,100 posts that have been identified as offensive."

[slate.com]