What did Mark McNamara say? San Jose police officer fired as disturbing racist texts come to light

A police officer from San Jose, California, has been fired for sending racist texts. The police officer who was fired recently over the racist texts row has been identified as Mark McNamara.

According to a press release from San Jose Chief of Police Anthony Mata, McNamara was involved in the alleged racist texts that started circulating during an unrelated criminal probe into an officer involved shooting of a 20-year-old college student. These racist texts were discovered during the investigation, following which a probe into his conduct was launched.

In the objectionable texts that landed him in trouble, he sent messages to one of his co-workers, where McNamara even wrote that he hates black people. The former police officer was referencing his derogatory texts about the 2022 incident where he shot K’aun Green, a 20-year-old college student.

This incident took place on March 27, 2022; at that time, McNamara shot and wounded Green, who is black. This took place after the latter was sorting out a fight that took place inside the La Victoria taqueria near San Jose State University. During this fight, Green disarmed one of the people involved in the fight, and was holding the confiscated gun in his hand when McNamara arrived at the scene and shot him. Green survived the shooting.

Moreover, it was also found in the texts that he sent that the police officer used derogatory remarks and repetitively used the n-word during his text conversation. In one of the texts, he wrote:

"Ni**a wanted to carry a gun in the Wild West. Not on my watch haha."

The police chief also said that the police officer who was on the receiving end of the messages has also been placed on administrative leave owing to this incident. Currently, an investigation is taking place in this case.

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San Jose police chief said that they have zero tolerance for cases of racial bias in their department

The police chief, Anthony Mata, was quick enough to take action against former police officer Mark McNamara for sending racist texts. Mata said in a statement,

"The messages were found due to the expansion of our Internal Affairs Unit’s efforts to thoroughly investigate all questionable conduct and is why we have made investments in a new early warning system."

The statement further mentioned,

"If any employee’s racial bias rears its ugly head, rest assured that I will take immediate action to ensure they are not part of this organization."

Mata concluded by saying that there is nothing more sickening than a person in power abusing their position.

San Jose City Manager Jennifer Maguire also released a statement on this case and backed Mata's move. Jennifer said,

"I stand with Chief Mata and all the officers of the San Jose Police Department who serve our community. There is no room for racial bias in our City."

It is also worth noting that Mark McNamara, the San Jose police officer, joined the police department in 2017, and he resigned from his position in November 2023. His resignation came after he was notified that a probe had been launched as his offensive texts came to light.