Cop accused of racist rant is suspended

A Buffalo police captain accused of delivering a racist rant at police headquarters in May has been suspended without pay.

Two Buffalo police officers and a mental health specialist filed a lawsuit in federal court on Nov. 21, alleging Captain Amber Beyer — head of the department’s Behavioral Health Team — made a series of offensive remarks in the team’s offices at police headquarters.

Among the things she is alleged to have said:

  • Black officers are more likely to be unfaithful to their spouses than white officers.
  • All the male Black officers she knew cheated on their wives.
  • White police officers suffer post-traumatic stress disorder from working in Black neighborhoods, but Black officers do not, because they were more accustomed to violent crime.
  • Black officers should try to understand how Black people’s criminality justified some racism on the part of whites.
  • She’d be suspicious if she saw a Black man in her neighborhood.

Investigative Post broke the story of the lawsuit last week.

Our partners at WGRZ reported Beyer’s suspension Thursday evening.



Police department spokesman Michael DeGeorge confirmed Friday morning that Beyer had been suspended without pay. 

In her absence, DeGeorge wrote in a text message to Investigative Post, Deputy Commissioner for Operation Alphonso Wright will oversee day-to-day operations of the Behavioral Health Team. 

According to the lawsuit, at least one witness to Beyer’s alleged rant filed a complaint with the department’s Internal Affairs Division shortly after the incident, which took place May 11. 

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim Beyer subsequently harassed and retaliated against the officers who filed the complaint. 

In September, she allegedly read aloud to her team — including the officers who filed the complaint — a Facebook post that frequently used a racial epithet, emphasizing the word each time she came to it. When one of the officers asked her to say “the N word” instead, according to the lawsuit, she refused.


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Two weeks ago, Investigative Post broke the story that a retired Buffalo police lieutenant testified in a separate lawsuit that he and “probably every officer” used “the N word” in interactions with Black citizens.

DeGeorge would not tell Investigative Post the exact date Internal Affairs began investigating the complaint against Beyer. The initial incident took place almost seven months ago.

Under the terms of the police contract, Beyer can only be suspended without pay for 30 days. After that, the city must either fire her or resume paying her, whether she remains suspended or returns to active duty. 

Earlier this week, Geoff Kelly discussed his recent reporting on allegations on the Buffalo Police Department with WBFO’s David Debo. Give a listen.


The post Cop accused of racist rant is suspended appeared first on Investigative Post.

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The overwhelming majority of the lawsuit against Fox News by Smartmatic has been filed under seal, leaving little information available for the public to follow. That changed with a filing this week, however.

Fox News filed a motion for summary judgment, which is a request for the court to resolve a lawsuit without a trial. In its response, Smartmatic emphatically said no.

In the wake of President Donald Trump's 2020 election loss, Fox hosts and guests similarly attacked Dominion Voting Systems, leading to a lawsuit from the company. After years of negotiations, both parties agreed to settle in 2023 for $787.5 million and an acknowledgment "the Court's rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false."

Smartmatic indicated at the time that it would not be following suit.

The court filing submitted on Wednesday alleges "widespread damage" and "unprecedented scale of defamation," calling the comments about the company "deliberate deception" and "Targeted Character Assassination."

However, it was in the final section that Smartmatic made it clear it was in it for the long haul.

"But, to be fair, Fox got one thing right in their motion. Smartmatic is not Dominion. Smartmatic is an order of magnitude bigger in almost every metric, starting with historical profits. Smartmatic pioneered voting systems with verified paper trails, conducted the first fully automated nationwide elections, and provided Europe’s first fully automated, verifiable voting experience. Smartmatic provided the world’s largest and longest operating online voting system, delivered the first blockchain-powered online vote, and supplied voting machines for the largest election contract in U.S. history," the documents says.

The filing cites endorsements from former presidents and touts its transparency and "perfect record. Smartmatic was in 2020 the largest and most successful voting company in the world."

"Fox picked the wrong company to cast as its villain," the filing says.

"Prior to the Campaign, Smartmatic was a multi-billion-dollar enterprise with global reach, a track record of success in the world’s most challenging election environments, and a foolproof defense to any claim of rigging the 2020 election (it operated only in LA County)," it continues. "In 2020, Fox may not have appreciated that it was attacking a company that, in fact, embodied the American dream—growing from obscurity to winner of the largest election contracts in the world. Fox now knows. That is why its motion desperately attempts to once again vilify Smartmatic—deploying the classic abuser’s tactic of blaming the victim. But Fox’s claims about Smartmatic remain lies; and, ultimately, the jury will determine the price Fox must pay for its deliberate destruction of an innocent company."

Smartmatic issued a press release with the filing saying internal communications at Fox "reveal that they knew there was no credible evidence of Smartmatic participating in election fraud, yet they deliberately chose to promote false narratives against the company anyway. These communications show contempt against their viewers, the country and the President."

Among the arguments Fox has presented is that they have a First Amendment right to the free press.

“This is not a case about freedom of the press,” said external legal counsel Erik Connolly, said for Smartmatic. “This is about a media empire choosing to lie for ratings and profit, no matter the consequences and no matter the damage done.”

Fox's first motion, filed in May, attacked the company further, saying that it has "ongoing reputational problems," which gives credence to its claims on air about the company, ABC News reported.

"In the wake of the hotly contested 2020 Presidential Election, Fox News hosts fairly and accurately reported on remarkable and newsworthy allegations that the President and his lawyers were making about election integrity during the short interval between Election Day and the date the results were certified, while court challenges were playing out around the country," the filing from the network said.

Fox said that Smartmatic sees the networks as a "litigation lottery ticket in Fox News's coverage of the 2020 election."

The lawsuit was first filed in 2021 and included other defendants.

See the court filing below.


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