Cops Investigate Domelights Death Threats; Black Officer’s Union Prez Under Police Protection

police_brutality.jpg INQUIRER: Philadelphia police are investigating threats directed toward the president of a black officers league after her organization accused the now-disabled Web site Domelights.com of hosting racist material. After the Guardian Civic League sued Domelights last week in federal court, several postings on the site attacked league president Rochelle Bilal. One said she “deserves to be gang-raped.” Bilal, a sworn officer who works in narcotics intelligence, has been assigned officers from the dignitary protection unit to guard her during the investigation. Two uniformed officers accompanied Bilal Wednesday night at a meeting at Guardian Civic League headquarters. MORE

PREVIOUSLY: City Blocks ‘Domelights’ From Municipal Web

RELATED: Reporting from Los Angeles and Seattle — To some police officers, President Obama was merely speaking the truth about how a certain department behaved in a difficult situation. To others, he committed the unpardonable sin of sticking his nose where it does not belong. When Obama accused Cambridge, Mass., police officers Wednesday of acting “stupidly” when they arrested his friend, Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., he reignited smoldering feelings in departments across the country about race, police practices and citizen obligations. Two well-known retired police chiefs — Norm Stamper of Seattle and Joseph McNamara of San Jose — agreed that Obama’s language was inflammatory. Though Stamper said the president’s candid remark could provoke some necessary self-examination by police officers, McNamara took a different view. “My personal belief is that had Professor Gates been white, the outcome would have been different,” Stamper said. Although the incident could have ended in a handshake and “maybe even a couple of chuckles . . . it ended up becoming a huge national issue.”

PHAWKER: Did he really just say that?

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