TOM ANGEL RESIGNS AFTER FORWARDING ANTI-MUSLIM EMAILS

SHAFAQNA- Tom Angel, a top official with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, is resigning as chief of staff to Sheriff Jim McDoell after it was revealed he forwarded emails with racist jokes and anti-Muslim statements while at his previous job with Burbank police, McDoell aounced Sunday.

The L.A. County sheriff said he accepted Angel’s resignation after leaing of his “inappropriate and unprofessional emails with others.”

Angel is accused of forwarding messages when he worked in Burbank in 2012 and 2013. The emails contained derogatory references to Muslims, women, Latinos and other groups.

One of the emails, for example, read: “I took my Biology exam last Friday. I was asked to name two things commonly found in cells. Apparently, ‘Blacks’ and ‘Mexicans’ were NOT the correct answers.”

Another forwarded email attempted to justify racial profiling of Muslims at airport security screenings by noting coections between “Devout Muslims” and terrorist acts of the last five decades.

McDoell said in his aouncement he intends to tu the situation into a leaing opportunity for all LASD persoel.

“Despite the Sheriff’s Department’s many recent efforts to fortify public trust and enhance inteal and exteal accountability and transparency, this incident reminds us that we and other law enforcement agencies still have work to do,” he stated in a press release.

He added that the department will implement new policies to enhance cultural and ethnic sensitivity, including conducting random audits of the email accounts of LASD workers.

The Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable said random auditing of emails is not enough, and officials with the sheriff’s department must detail specific timetables for audits, what employees will be audited, and what the results of the audits are.

Source: abc7