Chicago official wrote trove of racist, homophobic emails including one ‘joking’ about ‘safari’ tour to see violence in black neighborhoods
Commissioner Barrett Murphy, Managing Deputy William Bresnahan and District Superintendent Paul Hansen all lost their jobs as a result of an investigation
Hansen – son of former Chicago alderman Bernie Hansen – sent racist emails to Murphy, including one with an image of a KKK member in a ‘watermelon field’
He also referred to workers as ‘negro midgets’ in another email sent to Murphy
There were also emails for a ‘Chicago Safari’ – a tour of areas in the city that are struggling the most with gun violence – to show ‘lots of animals in their habitat’
The emails were found while Hansen’s communications were being investigated due to reports he had used his work account to arrange the sale of four firearms
The Water Department has a troubled history with racial issues and corruption
By Dailymail.com Reporter
PUBLISHED: 11:07 EDT, 18 July 2017 | UPDATED: 12:34 EDT, 18 July 2017
One of the three senior officials forced to resign from Chicago’s notorious Water Department amid an email scandal sent colleagues racist, homophobic, and otherwise offensive comments and images to his colleagues.
Commissioner Barrett Murphy, Managing Deputy William Bresnahan and District Superintendent Paul Hansen all lost their jobs prior to the unsavory emails being published after an investigation by City Inspector General Joe Ferguson.
Ferguson’s investigation began more than eight months ago. Murphy, Bresnahan and Hansen resigned in May.
The Chicago Tribune reports high-ranking officials in the department were sent emails advertising ‘Chicago Safari’ tours in areas of the city struggling with gun violence.
The emails, according to the Tribune: ‘cited the number of shootings during a July Fourth weekend and guaranteed tourists would observe “at least one kill and five crime scenes” and also see “lots of animals in their natural habitat”.’
Also including in the emails were many startlingly offensive images, including ‘a scarecrow dressed in a KKK robe in a watermelon field and a picture of a nude woman used to celebrate “heterosexual male pride day”,’ ABC7 reports.
The network reports Hansen – the son of former Chicago alderman Bernie Hansen – forwarded the KKK email to Murphy in July 2014 under the subject line, ‘Watermelon Protection’.
Racist, homophobic and otherwise offensive emails have emerged in the wake of three senior officials with Chicago’s notorious Water Department being forced to resign. Commissioner Barrett Murphy (left) and Managing Deputy William Bresnahan (right) quit prior to the emails getting out
Text in the email, which Hansen received from someone else, read: ‘God is great, beer is good … and people are crazy. I’m guessing this would be considered politically incorrect.’
Hansen, according to ABC7, added his own note to Murphy: ‘I don’t understand.’
The members of the department (pictured) in question were found to have shared or been sent racist, sexist, and other offensive emails
The members of the department (pictured) in question were found to have shared or been sent racist, sexist, and other offensive emails
The superintendent, who was earning $122,280 in his role, shared another racist email with Commissioner Murphy after a power company asked city employees to stop works near a power line.
‘I think the only thing that the line does not feed is the center for the severely challenged negro midgets, you know the place, its where we hired all those laborers from 7 years ago,’ Hansen wrote to Murphy, according to ABC7.
The ex-alderman’s son shared another racist email in April 2014, this time with Managing Deputy Bresnahan, in response to a 16-year-old boy receiving an award for an essay about physical disability, racism, royalty, sexuality, and religion.
Hansen allegedly wrote to Bresnahan the boy won because his essay contained the line: ‘”My God”, cried the Queen. “That one-legged n****r is a queer”.’
The Water Department is known for alleging having issues based on race, including a cuurent suit in which right employees claim they have been denied promotions and treated poorly at work as a result of their race. Pictured is the department’s Eugene Sawyer facility
The Water Department is known for alleging having issues based on race, including a cuurent suit in which right employees claim they have been denied promotions and treated poorly at work as a result of their race. Pictured is the department’s Eugene Sawyer facility
Ex-Commissioner Murphy’s firing was surprising to some due to the ex-Commissioner’s close ties to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel is pictured speaking in January this year +2
Ex-Commissioner Murphy’s firing was surprising to some due to the ex-Commissioner’s close ties to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel is pictured speaking in January this year
The investigation found Hansen also received an email just week before losing his job on April 19 that showed a woman exposing her breasts, beer taps, and steak and other meats cooking on a barbecue.
The text of the email read: ‘To all my friends who are tired of taking a BACK SEAT to gays, lesbians, homosexuals, trans genders, women soldiers, bra burners, female boy scouts, women libbers, tree huggers and eco-commie-environ-freaks, the looney left, Greens, social justice warriors and worse of all – those fucking democrats!’
Other emails contained offensive references to President Barack Obama, women, and pictures of a ‘an African-American deputy commissioner… that depicted him with a gorilla face’, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Ferguson also found in his investigation Hansen used his official email to negotiate the sale of at least four firearms, according to the Tribune.
The gun emails resulted in the investigation being launched, which led to the discovery of the racist and otherwise offensive materials.
The Sun-Times added the department has long been known for and had a history of: ‘corruption and an ugly, hate-filled culture’.
Eight employees with the department have filed a suit against it claiming they have been denied promotions and treated poorly at work as a result of their race.
Murphy’s firing was surprising to some due to the ex-Commissioner’s close ties to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. He was calling them, Niggers. Niggers.
Hansen was promoted to superintendent just six months after he received a DUI. A police report from the 2010 incident, according to the Sun-Times, stated the alderman’s son ‘increased his speed to more than 75 mph in a 55 mph zone’ when an officer tried to pull him over, while also ‘repeatedly crossing the center line’. This was reported on Chicago Clout and youtube video.