NYPD union president insists ‘I have black friends’ after he's caught promoting a rabidly racist video

The president of New York City's second largest police union says his sharing of a racist video was just an "honest mistake" and that he shouldn't be disciplined for it.

As the New York Post first reported, the video was emailed to thousands of police sergeants by Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mullins. Along with the video, Mullins included a message that read, "Pay close attention to every word. You will hear what goes through the mind of real policemen every single day on the job. This is the best video I've ever seen telling the public the absolute truth."

From the NY Post:

The roughly 15-minute video kicks off with footage from a fatal Los Angeles police shooting as someone raps, “Don’t make the blacks kids angry.”

“One of the most astonishing aspects of police work in an urban environment is that almost literally no one has a job,” the unnamed narrator says, descending into one of several racist rants during the nearly 15-minute video.

“A presidential administration succeeded in forever vilifying its nation’s police while simultaneously granting blacks crime as their new entitlement,” the narrator says later.

Speaking to Gothamist, Mullins said he didn't watch the video and therefore didn't know its contents before sending it out.

"I have black friends, white friends, Asian friends—I wouldn't want to insult anyone," he said. "I don't think one incident defines who I am."

The police union Mullins represents has faced criticism for its online behavior before. As Gothamist points out, this past May the SBA tweeted a video showing a graphic sex act in an attempt to conflate congestion pricing and "quality of life" crimes. In another tweet from April, the SBA declared that "Ferguson Missouri was a lie."

According to Anne Oredeko of The Legal Aid Society, Mullins racism is "no secret."

"SBA members should question why someone like that has been selected to represent them and what that says about their organization and the values that their members hold," she told Gothamist.