Officer Mike McNamara shot a Black man who had just broken up a fight. He was allowed to resign in November after his racist texts came to light.

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES, January 24, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Newly released texts reflect an alarming level of prejudice and bias from a San Jose Police officer facing a federal civil rights lawsuit for his 2022 shooting of a Black man who had just broken up a fight in a crowded restaurant.

Officer Mike McNamara was allowed to resign in November after earlier texts from the night of the shooting, and from a deposition last summer, came to light. In those, McNamara bragged about shooting a Black man, repeatedly used the N-word to describe the victim and his attorneys, and threatened that he would shoot the attorneys for accusing him of excessive force.

The newly released texts demonstrate the officer’s frequent use of the N-word and racial animus in texts to fellow officers and friends, including “Yo n***a, what are your pronouns??? Mine are n***a, and n***er”; “N***a now isn’t the time for drink! We gotta sculpt our bodies for the upcoming race war”; “You didn’t wanna arrest them for DWB (Driving While Black)”; and “I hate black people more than I hate being a cop.” In his texts McNamara also referred to an Asian physician as a “c***k doctor” adding “I can hardly understand her though.”

A federal judge in late December ordered the city of San Jose to release the new batch of McNamara’s text messages to civil rights attorneys at Pointer & Buelna, Lawyers for the People. The Oakland-based firm represents K’aun Green, who survived after being shot four times by McNamara, in a federal civil rights lawsuit.

"These texts are not just offensive, they speak to the vile nature of how the officer viewed K’aun the night he nearly killed him - as just another black man who was destined for a life of poverty and crime despite the fact that K’aun was a college student and had never been convicted of a crime,” civil rights attorney Adanté Pointer said. “This underscores the urgent need for comprehensive reform and accountability in our police departments."

McNamara is also accused of destruction of evidence by deleting his social media accounts the day after shooting Green. In a Jan. 12 motion filed by civil rights attorney Patrick Buelna, Judge Nathanael Cousins was asked to rule by default in favor of Green because McNamara deleted his social media accounts during active litigation, according to the document.

Those accounts would have exposed more of McNamara’s hatred of African Americans and his impetus for shooting Green, Buelna wrote.

Green, a Contra Costa College sophomore quarterback, was minding his own business and eating at a popular taqueria when three drunken men started a fight with him. One of the men pulled a “ghost gun” which Green wrestled away from him.

He was attempting to deescalate the situation by backing out of the restaurant, holding the gun pointing up at the sky, out of the men’s reach. San Jose Police had gathered on the restaurant’s steps and had their weapons drawn when Green stepped outside with his back to them. As video from the incident shows, Green dropped the gun just as officers ordered him to drop the weapon. McNamara still shot him, as the gun was falling to the ground.

Green has been credited with being a hero that night for wrestling the gun away from a drunk customer with a gun.

The lawsuit was filed at U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, in San Francisco; Green v. City of San Jose, et. al.; Case 5:22-cv-02174 (April 6, 2022).

About Pointer & Buelna, LLP, Lawyers for the People: Civil rights attorneys Adanté Pointer and Patrick Buelna started their law firm to give people a chance against large institutions like the police, government, corporations and insurance companies. They have secured many of the largest trial verdicts and settlements in these practice areas.

Robert Frank
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