St. Louis Cop Dan Page Suspended After Video Of Racist Rant Emerges
St. Louis Police Officer Dan Page, who gained notoriety for pushing Don Lemon during a live broadcast from Ferguson, Mo. last week, has been relieved of duty after video emerged of a speech he gave in which he railed against African-Americans, the LGBT community, and President Barack Obama.
Mediaite reports that the hour-long speech was delivered at an Oath Keepers meeting just months ago. The Oath Keepers, as The Inquisitr has noted, are a far-right group considered by the Southern Poverty Law Center to be an extremist organization.
In the video, Page shows a photo of himself in Kenya, saying “I flew to Africa, right there, and I went to our undocumented president’s home… He was born in Kenya.” As RawStory points out, authorities are concerned over statements that Page makes in the video indicating his willingness to take life:
“I personally believe in Jesus Christ as my lord and savior, but I’m also a killer. 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.”
Ferguson: officer relieved of duty after ‘black little perverts’ video surfaces http://t.co/tRbwA3Mmbt pic.twitter.com/P8qPyxAOhB
— Blue DuPage (@BlueDuPage) August 22, 2014
Page doesn’t limit his ire during the video, speaking out at against a variety of groups, as The Daily KOS notes:
“In addition to ranting about ‘black robed perverts,’ affirmative action, hate crime laws, Muslims, ‘sodomites’ on the Supreme Court, ‘sodomites and females’ in the military and declaring that the people he meets on domestic violence calls should just ‘shoot each other and get it over with’, and seemingly bragging about killing people, Page manages to hit a gamut of crackpot conspiracy theories.”
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar relieved Page of duty after the video surfaced. Speaking to CNN’s Don Lemon, who personally sent a link of Page’s remarks to Belmar, the chief said that “it’s embarrassing when you find out about stuff like this.” Though the video has been on YouTube since April, Belmar claimed that it was “difficult to unearth,” because he personally does not use social media. Page’s comments, he said, “are not indicative of the St. Louis County police department, they’re not indicative of the officers that he works beside, and frankly, he’s let them down.”
St. Louis County relieves Officer Dan Page after his racist video rant. #Ferguson http://t.co/Km7G1GLcYK pic.twitter.com/IiavOY1CWw
— Scott Wooledge (@Clarknt67) August 22, 2014
Chief Belmar extended an apology to anyone in the St. Louis community who was offended by Dan Page’s remarks in the video.
[Image via RawStory]
