Wilton Manors Police Chief Richard Perez claims the racially insensitive and offensive e-mails he sent from his work computer weren't just jokes - they were training material.
Dozens of e-mails degrading women, blacks and Democrats were forwarded by Perez to his command staff and friends and discovered during an investigation earlier this month. Perez has been suspended 30 days without pay for the jokes, but his excuse might be even more disturbing than the jokes themselves.
Among the jokes found in Perez's e-mail was a story hinting President Barack Obama is the offspring of a woman and an animal.
“A little boy said to his mother, ‘Mommy, how come I'm black and you're white.’ His mother replied, ‘Don't even go there, Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you're lucky you don't bark!’” read the e-mail, sent from Perez on July 23.
"It's political satire. It was not to be racially motivated," Perez said Tuesday. "People who work for me currently and in the past know I treat people with dignity and respect."
But the Obama joke was one of the easier e-mails to swallow. .
This one, entitled "Math Class," pokes fun at education in the inner city.
"Dwayne pimps 3 ho's. If the price is $85 per trick, how many tricks per day must each ho turn to support Dwayne's $800 per day Crack habit?” reads that e-mail.
Perez explained that he has used such e-mails as part of his lesson plan at Broward College, where he used to teach professional development before he was removed from the classroom after the controversy. Gov. Charlie Crist also removed the police chief from his post on a law enforcement panel he was appointed to in 2007.
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Other e-mails use the N-word. Perez admitted he has forwarded several of those. The e-mails were obtained by the South Florida Times.
"I teach stereotyping. I teach ethics. I teach diversity," he said. "I have several of those and I forward them to my friends, who download them. That's not an excuse. I should not have done this on a city computer."
