Veteran Chicago detective may be fired over 'racist, xenophobic' posts

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A detective with the Chicago Police Department (CPD) could be fired over what police oversight officials described as “hundreds of racist, xenophobic, transphobic and other offensive posts.”

In a report from the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), obtained by WBBM through a Freedom of Information Act request, officials say posts and re-posts by CPD Detective Shawn Popow “disparage the same protected classes he took an oath to protect and serve, including African Americans, migrants, Muslims, the LGBTQ+ community and people who are disabled.”

The posts were made between 2018 and 2023.

In one, Popow called a black woman a “worthless ghetto mutt.”

In another post, Popow defined a so-called “chimp out” as “an aggressive violent outburst by a Black person, such as tantrums of chimpanzees or baboons.”

A post showing a Black man in an open coffin is captioned, “The face you make when you don’t understand what ‘stop resisting’ means.”

The pronouns of a transgender person, no longer living, are “was/were.”

Several of the posts came from Popow’s account on X, previously known as Twitter. During an interview with COPA, Popow confirmed that the handle of his X account was “sheepdogCPD” and the name associated with that account was “Südliche Polizei,” which translates to “southern police” in German. He told investigators that it was inspired by his family’s German heritage and his police duties on the South Side of Chicago.

Popow said he deleted the account, as well as a Facebook account, after negative attention relating to a COPA investigation that began in 2023.

During his interview with COPA, Popow was asked to explain 19 posts. For each post, officials wrote that Popow “admitted that the communication in question was not appropriate for a CPD member to express in public.”

Asked if anything else he posted could have been found offensive, Popow said “he was sure someone could have taken offense to something else he had written.” He went to say that, as a public servant, he shouldn’t have used social media at all.

“He continued in this vein of thought, saying he should not have any opinions on anything because he did not have the same rights as others, and because he now had to face repercussions for attempting to express himself as freely as an ordinary citizen can,” COPA officials wrote.

Later in the report, investigators wrote that the Supreme Court has previously established that the government “may discipline public employees for speech which, if expresses by private citizens, would have been protected by the First Amendment.”

COPA wrote: “Det. Popow’s flagrant disregard for CPD policies, as well as the nature of the posts and the frequency with which he posted them, all suggest he was expressing his true views.”

COPA and CPD Supt. Larry Snelling said they believe Popow should be fired.

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