QUEENS — The NYPD is looking into claims that a police officer assigned to a Jamaica precinct made several social media posts about protests and "hood rats" that activists said were racially charged.
The posts were initially spotted on Tuesday by Keegan Stephan, a Black Lives Matter protester, who reposted them on Twitter, as first reported by Gothamist.
The posts, allegedly made by Officer Matthew Langone of the 103rd Precinct on his Instagram account, included a picture of a white man looking at two guns with a caption reading: “When you wanna pop off rounds in your neighborhood like the rest of the hood rats, but you gotta be responsible."
“Or do we,” he commented below the post.
To be clear, this appears to be an active duty cop w/the @NYPD103Pct posting this filth: https://t.co/gABdz1zpHj pic.twitter.com/zq9bSlGfNB
— Keegan Stephan (@KeeganNYC) January 12, 2016Another post showed a T-shirt with a message reading “I (heart) Protesters,” with a pair of plastic handcuffs instead of the heart and the letters OT, which stand for "overtime," being highlighted.
Stephan said he checked the officer's account, because his username was mentioned in a caption next to a photo showing the anti-protest T-shirt on the Off Duty Outfitters Instagram account.
When he looked at what he believed was Langone's account he said he saw numerous pictures of him and his colleagues taken at the 103rd Precinct.
"I was pretty shocked," said Stephan, who called the anti-protest pictures and comments “troubling.”
"It's upsetting that a cop uses protests just like something to arrest and make overtime money off of."
The account has since been made private.
“Internal Affairs is investigating,” the NYPD said in an email, but did not elaborate on the issue.
