Tom Angel, a high-ranking official with the Los Angeles county Sheriff’s office resigned late Monday after a chain of racist and sexist emails were revealed, putting him in the spotlight and causing public outrage.
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Angel in his capacity as chief of staff at the Burbank Police department sent numerous bigoted emails between 2012 to 2013. The emails contained racial slurs and jokes against Muslims, African Americans and Mexicans. He lamented over concerns of political correctness and racial profiling of terrorists. He also made discriminatory references to women and other minority groups.
The incident leaves Angel and the police as a whole with red faces. Ironically, he had been given the chief of staff position to help clean up the department's image which had problems with accusations of discrimination.
While offering his swift resignation, Angel's apology seems tokenistic at best. He claimed he continued to send the emails as he did not believe that he would be found out and did not intend for anyone in the public to see what he called "jokes."
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He also argued that such emails should not be able to be obtained through a public records laws, which is how the Los Angeles Times was able to access them.
Sheriff Jim McDonnell said that law enforcement still has a long way to go to improve their public perception and transparency. McDonnell said he found the incident "deeply troubling."
In response to the incident, new policies are set to be invoked to increase transparency and prevent bigotry within the police. It will include random email checks of staff.