St. Louis Police Officer Suspended For Sexist, 'Sodomites' Rant

In Depth

We’ve all come to realise over the last few weeks just how much is wrong in the St. Louis County, Missouri police force. It should come as no surprise, then, that a member of the force has been suspended after a video came to light of the officer ranting about “sickening sodomites.”

Officer Dan Page of the St. Louis County Police Department is someone you might already know. And as you might imagine, it’s not for anything good. He was assigned to crowd control in Ferguson, MO in the wake of the shooting of Mike Brown. He’s become notorious for his heavy handed tactics, caught on tape pushing CNN reporter Don Lemon during an active, live link with CNN headquarters.

Page has now been placed on administrative leave because of surfacing clips of his misogynistic, homophobic, Islamaphobic, and fundamentalist Christian rant at the “Oath Keepers” police and military group back in April.

If you take a stand against sodomy, you are a terrorist, the next phase is prosecution. There is a couple in New Mexico right now who are being prosecuted because they refused to take pictures of sodomites. In the military right now, you have open sodomy, people holding hands, swapping spit together – sickening. It’s pitiful.

He also went on to discuss how he “deeply resent[s]” that women are now able to succeed in the toughest special units of the US armed forces because of “changed qualifications” yet provides no evidence of how this has occurred.

Page’s superior, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar has confirmed Page’s suspension and insists that he is “disturbed” by the officer’s remarks, saying that they do not represent the calibre of officer in the department.

His statements are not indicative of the St. Louis County Police, they’re not indicative of the officers that he works beside, and frankly he’s let him down. The internal aspect of this investigation, that’s not the hard part. I apologise to the community, anyone he’s offended by these remarks. Again, he does not represent the rank and file of [the department]. It’s embarrassing when you find out about stuff like this – it was uploaded in April, but these things can be difficult to unearth at times.

Oh, I bet it is embarrassing, Chief. You’ve had an awful lot of “embarrassment” lately, because although you’ve made the claim that this is not “indicative” of your department, there are a hell of a lot of people of color in Ferguson, MO who might just disagree with that. Especially given Page’s expressed love of killing.

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…I’m into diversity — I kill everybody. I don’t care.

…You might believe in Jesus, Officer Page, but you seem to have forgotten a few key commands like “thou shalt not kill,” “turn the other cheek” and “love thy neighbor.”

Video via YouTube.

 
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