Even England wants to talk about Rahm Emanuel and his racist emails, Paul Hansen DOWM

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.

Chicago Tribune’s Ray Long and Todd Lighty expose the Chicago Department of Water Managment

In a city scarred by a deep and troubling history with guns, a supervisor in the scandal-plagued water department used his city email account to negotiate firearms deals and make light of deadly Fourth of July violence in black neighborhoods by offering “Chicago Safari” tours, a new watchdog report revealed Monday.

The latest development in the ongoing investigation, which the Tribune first disclosed in May, emerged as Inspector General Joseph Ferguson detailed how ousted district water superintendent Paul Hansen emailed with individuals over personal purchases or sales of at least four firearms and five cars.

Those emails about firearms started the investigation over his use of a government account for personal business, which is against city rules. And it quickly spread to other emails sent by Hansen, who is white and the son of a former alderman, to other water department bosses, according to City Hall sources.

In his quarterly report, Ferguson revealed a fresh string of anti-black emails sent to multiple high-ranking water department workers that touted a fake “Chicago Safari” package. It 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.”

Hansen’s racially charged emails included messages to fellow workers purported to be in “Ebonics,” sometimes called American black English, and a picture describing a swimming pool for a small African-American child who sits in a bucket filled with water while holding a slice of watermelon, the report found.

Ferguson also cited Hansen’s “Watermelon Protection” email that featured a picture depicting a Ku Klux Klan scarecrow guarding a field of watermelons, part of a cache of racist, sexist and homophobic emails the Tribune first disclosed online Friday.

A second figure noted in the report for anti-Muslim and anti-black emails was Thomas J. Durkin, the general foreman of plumbers who resigned recently after being placed on administrative leave while under investigation. Neither Hansen nor Durkin were named, but the Tribune was able to identify them through City Hall sources, the description of their activities and job status listed.

Newly released racist, sexist emails show scope of scandal at Chicago’s water department
Hansen and Durkin could not be reached immediately for comment.

The inspector general’s quarterly report comes as Mayor Rahm Emanuel finds himself fighting the proliferation of firearms in the city and facing the fallout from another deadly July Fourth weekend in Chicago.

As Emanuel seeks to recapture support from African-American voters still upset over his handling of the 2014 fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald, the mayor and his aides have stressed that he installed a new commissioner and sought to remake the culture in the long-troubled department.

Still, Ferguson’s report raised questions about whether he found all the troubling emails. Ferguson said the mayor’s Law Department imposes restrictions that do not allow “unfettered access to city emails,” which has hampered the investigation. He said the Law Department requires that his office submit requests for emails using limited search terms and date ranges.

“Given the lack of direct access to emails,” Ferguson said that his office “cannot be certain it has identified all relevant documents.”

Lawsuit alleges racism at roiled Chicago water department
Bill McCaffrey, a Law Department spokesman, said restrictions on email searches are needed to protect the integrity of the inspector general’s investigation, any attorney-client privileges and the city’s “limited resources.”

“The protocol allows up to 20,000 emails to be produced at a time, however, we greatly exceeded that count in this investigation and have accommodated similar requests every other time the Inspector General has requested a larger search,” McCaffrey said.

Hansen’s misuse of a city computer was so prevalent that, in one four-month period alone, he called up sexually explicit, age-restricted YouTube videos and visited other internet sites unrelated to city business on “thousands of occasions,” the report found. Durkin also was cited for sending and receiving sexually explicit photos and videos on his city email account.

Emanuel aides have defended the mayor, underscoring his response to the investigation that has toppled Hansen, whose father is former 44th Ward Ald. Bernie Hansen, Durkin and three others. The biggest casualty came in May when Emanuel collected the resignation of water Commissioner Barrett Murphy, a friend of the mayor whose wife, Lynn Lockwood, is a former chairman and treasurer of one of Emanuel’s political funds and is close to his wife, Amy Rule.

At the time, the mayor’s office said Emanuel acted “quickly and decisively” by asking Murphy and top deputy William Bresnahan to step down after learning of what was then an 8-month-old Ferguson investigation.

“Mayor Emanuel has been clear that the conduct uncovered by the OIG’s investigation does not reflect Chicago’s values and will not be tolerated, which is why he acted swiftly to address the issue and bring in new leadership at the Department of Water Management,” spokeswoman Shannon Breymaier said Monday in response to the report.

And Emanuel’s newly installed water department Commissioner Randy Conner, an African-American, said his agency “has a zero-tolerance policy on racism and sexism” and “will continue to take all appropriate measures to fully enforce this policy up to and including termination, or separation” from the department.

The City Council’s chairman of the black caucus, Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, said he is glad the investigation is continuing and bringing the issues to light. “I’m hoping under new leadership that they can address this head-on and eliminate that cancer that was eating away, permeating. right through the department.”

In late June, Durkin, the general foreman of plumbers, and John “Jack” Lee Jr., a district superintendent, were placed on administrative leave pending disciplinary decisions and now have resigned.

Durkin sent email from his city account that referred to Muslims as “rag head c— suckers,” according to the inspector general. He also suggested that people should have thrown grenades at a black Italian politician instead of bananas, the report said.

In Monday’s report, it was Hansen’s attempt to make light of a spike of violence in largely black neighborhoods during a previous July Fourth holiday that figured prominently. The report said Hansen’s email to multiple high-ranking water department officials started with the subject line: “Chicago Safari Tickets.” The report doesn’t name the recipients.

“If you didn’t book a Chicago Safari adventure with us this 4th of July weekend this is what you missed,” the report quoted the email as saying. The date of this email and others were not provided in the report. The comment was followed by lists of the number of people shot in South and West side neighborhoods including Englewood, Garfield Park, Austin, Lawndale, South Shore and Woodlawn.

“Remember all Chicago Safari packages include 3 deluxe ‘Harold’s Chicken’ meals a day,” the report quoted Hansen’s email as saying. “We guarantee that you will see at least one kill and five crime scenes per three day tour. You’ll also see lots and lots of animals in their natural habitat. Call and book your Chicago Safari today.”

Four white people in safari gear are depicted as taking pictures of several black people who are trying to break into a car, the report said.

Durkin replied to the safari email with a message that described African-Americans as “wild animals” who are “untamed,” the report said.

Among the email’s photographs, the report said, was one of a “wheelbarrow full of watermelons with a sign stating, “Apply for a Credit Card. Free Watermelons.'” It was sent to a high-ranking official with the subject line: “U Know U Be In Da Hood.”

The email with the African-American child in a bucket and a piece of watermelon came with a message: “As an apology — Paula Deen Opens Swimming Pool for Youth.” A celebrity chef, Deen became the object of widespread ridicule when she said in a 2013 deposition that she used a racial slur. Deen, who was dropped by the Food Network, later apologized.

Ferguson said both Hansen and Durkin were designated as having resigned in lieu of discharge, and they will be placed on the ineligible-for-rehire list.

In another water department case, Ferguson recommended that a chemist who allegedly harassed a current water worker and a former employee be fired. Ferguson alleged the chemist made multiple derogatory text messages and phone calls, citing him for “aggressive and threatening behavior,” according to the report.

The department fired the chemist, who is fighting the termination.

Chicago Tribune’s Hal Dardick contributed.

Housecleaning at Water Department spurs request for police protection

Two African-American former employees of the city’s Water Department are so afraid of what could happen if they testify against a co-worker, they are seeking police protection.

David Reed and Christopher Harris said they complained about the racist and violent culture at the Water Department for more than a decade, but their complaints fell on deaf ears.

“We tried to get relief. We contacted management, talked to the city’s Inspector General’s office, and the EEOC, and nothing happened,” Harris told me.

“Now the same individual that they allowed to intimidate us and harass us, they have subpoenaed us to testify against,” Reed said.

Anthony Nguyen was fired in May. The men are being asked to appear on Friday and again on Aug. 10 before an arbitrator in a hearing in which Nguyen is trying to get his job back.

The forensic scientists claimed they were harassed, threatened and intimidated by Nguyen and others and described a work environment where they were taunted with insults and racist cartoons even after they left the department.

A spokesman for Inspector General Joe Ferguson would not comment on this case.
Reed and Harris are now reluctant to testify, citing safety and health concerns.

“They apparently told him that we are responsible for him losing his job. We are afraid of this guy,” Reed said.

“We have expressed that concern to the corporation counsel. They say there is nothing they can do. The police can give us special attention for two weeks and that’s it. After that, we are on our own. The way the city operates, they get us to testify, and after two weeks and something happens, they’ll say: ‘Go away,'” Harris told me.

The men claim that even after they left the water department — Reed retired and Harris is on leave of absence — Nguyen sent them racist texts and emails and made threatening phone calls in the middle of the night.

Harris said he has an order of protection against Nguyen that is still in effect.

I was unable to reach Nguyen on Wednesday.

But a spokesman for the city’s law department said Nguyen’s firing is not related to the department’s shake-up over racist emails.

“The City of Chicago does not tolerate harassment of any kind. Department of Water Management officials enacted progressive disciplinary actions against Anthony Nguyen, which eventually resulted in his termination. He is appealing his firing, and we will strongly defend his separation from the City of Chicago,” said Bill McCaffrey, a spokesman for the city’s Law Department.

The “racist email scandal” has resulted in the firings of several high-level managers, including the former Department of Water Management Commissioner, Barrett Murphy, who has close ties to the mayor.

The Inspector General’s office stumbled on the offensive emails while investigating allegations that the son of a former alderman had used his email account to sell guns.

Last week, the department’s African-American employees filed a class-action lawsuit accusing the city of “unlawful policies, patterns and employment practices to create and proliferate a hostile and abusive work environment based on race that includes violence, intimidation, and retaliation . . .”

The behavior Reed and Harris said they endured while working for the water department appears to fit that pattern.

Harris said he got a call from the Inspector General’s office encouraging him to testify at the arbitration hearing.

“They basically said if we didn’t testify, Anthony Nguyen could get his job back and he should never have been hired and should never be reinstated,” Harris said.

Reed argues that the racist behavior is nothing new.

“We’ve been saying this ever since 2005. [Nguyen] was able to do all this without being reprimanded. I don’t trust any of them. They are offering us nothing. We can’t get our jobs back, any health benefits or protection. The city really doesn’t care,” he said.

It is unfortunate that these men had to wait so long for entrenched racism in the city’s water department to be addressed.

Hopefully, the city can give these men the assurances they need so no other employee has to go through what they did.

Chicago Water Commissioner Resigns Amid Email Probe: Reports

Chicago Water Commissioner Barrett Murphy abruptly resigned on Friday afternoon, and details have begun to emerge over what caused his sudden departure.
According to reports from the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, Murphy resigned at the request of Mayor Rahm Emanuel after he became aware of an inspector general investigation into alleged racist and sexist emails sent by the former commissioner.
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“We were made aware of an IG investigation into the culture at the water department,” Emanuel spokesman Adam Collins told the Tribune. “The mayor acted quickly and decisively, asking for the commissioner’s resignation and appointing a new commissioner to lead the department forward and change the department’s culture.”
Murphy will be replaced by Randy Conner in the role of water commissioner, according to reports. The investigation into the emails centers around Murphy’s failure to discipline employees that were sending the allegedly racist and sexist emails, and the IG investigation has been going on for eight months, according to the Tribune.
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“I want to thank Barrett Murphy for his many years of public service, and I wish him well in the future,” Emanuel said in a statement. “Randy Conner’s extensive track record of experience strengthening City infrastructure and improving City services for residents will allow him to hit the ground running at the Department of Water Management.”
Murphy is just the latest in a run of high-profile officials to leave the water department this week. William Bresnahan, the agency’s deputy commissioner, also resigned, as did Paul Hansen, a district superintendent of water distribution.