After a controversial arrest where South Bend police officers were caught on tape reenacting a KKK scene from “Django Unchained,” South Bend police chief Scott Ruszkowski, a close ally of presidential candidate and Mayor Pete Buttigieg, made questionable claims to a local activist insinuating the officers on tape mimicking Klansmen were not from the South Bend Police Department.

As Status Coup first reported, during an arrest of 21-year-old black male Marko Mosgrove on December 18th, Mosgrove livestreamed his arrest (the original livestream was taken down on Facebook but an activist clipped it).

After realizing they were being taped, South Bend police officers turned around his phone, turning the video black with the audio still running. At the tail end of the arrest, officers begin imitating Klansmen from the Quentin Tarantino film “Django.”

“I can’t see fu**king sh*t out of this thing!,” an officer says while laughing, mimicking the scene where KKK members argue with one another over their Klan hoods not fitting their faces.

“I think we all agree that these were a nice idea,” the officer says, further imitating a Klansmen during the “Django” scene trying to diffuse the argument.

In text messages obtained by Status Coup between Police Chief Ruszkowski and a local activist after the arrest, the police chief insinuated the officers mimicking Klansmen weren’t from South Bend Police Department.

“Did you know it wasn’t just SB cops there,” Ruszkowski said to activist Wayne Hubbard. “I’ll find out who, but I know it wasn’t just South Bend cops,” the chief continued.

But a witnesses at the scene of the home where the arrest occurred told Status Coup the only police vehicles there were South Bend police cruisers. During the arrest, officers can be heard saying South Bend Officer Devon Gilbert was the arresting officer, which a police report confirms. The report also listed South Bend Police as the arresting agency. South Bend Police Sgt. Kayla Miller can also be heard on the audio.

In later parts of their text exchange, the police chief seemed to switch versions of his defense, pivoting away from suggesting the officers might have been from a different police force in favor of claiming the officers comments weren’t offensive.

“I just told you nobody was making fun of anybody where did you even determine that,” Ruszkowsi said. He added that he’s never seen “Django Unchained” but those who’ve “researched said that line was ripping on the KKK.”

“Did you even see the movie? Did you know the part referred to by others actually is making fun of the KKK for being the idiots they are?” he continued.

Hubbard, a black activist, responded that he did see the movie and he “didn’t like it very much.”

Ruszkowski said he won’t deliver judgment until all the facts and context are gathered; in response, Hubbard didn’t mince words.

“You have the facts the facts are that officers quoted a Django KKK line mocking the black kid that they arrested.”

Chief Ruszkowski told Hubbard that once he identified the facts and officers involved, he would have the activist speak with them directly.

Two days after the chief’s exchange with Hubbard, South Bend Tribune reported that the police department would investigate. Seven days later, Mayor Buttigieg has not addressed the audio of South Bend police officers reenacting the KKK scene while arresting a black mail (his campaign, nor his South Bend office, responded to South Bend’s request for comment).

Police Chief Ruszkowski refused to elaborate to Status Coup on his claim that South Bend Police wasn’t the only agency on scene at the arrest, saying there was an ongoing investigation into the comments made during the arrest.

“I know who was on scene and when,” he said via text message to Status Coup.

On why an investigation was needed to simply confirm confirm whether police agencies other than South Bend police were on scene, the chief said “you can assume whatever you’d like, I’m not discussing an internal.”

A law enforcement official told Status Coup nine days would not be needed to investigate who the officers were who made the comments.

“Within a couple hours,” the official said it would take to identify the officers.

On Chief Ruszkowski muddying the waters to claim the officers caught on tape mimicking Klansmen weren’t from South Bend Police Department, the law enforcement official told Status Coup “that’s the way he is.”

Beyond reenacting Klansmen from “Django,” a female officer can be heard instructing other officers to “stop recording” their body cameras. The command came after an officer described their face shields as “skull masks.”

“You were [recording] or you were not?” the female officer asked a male officer after the stop recording command.

“I’m not now,” he responded.

Activist Vernado Malone, a member of South Bend Justice, told Status Coup that he went to the police station after the arrest to find out who were the officers on tape.

“The third-shift captain spoke to me and told me that the officer was Sgt. Miller [Kayla] who was there,” Malone said. Status Coup can’t confirm whether Miller, a female officer, instructed officers to turn off their body camera, but male officers can be heard addressing Miller in other parts of the tape.

During Chief Ruszkowski and Hubbard’s exchange, the chief defended the shutting off of the body cameras.

“They were turned off because nobody was there. It was all cops. The dude was already gone. I don’t know what all happened but I know nobody but cops were in the house.”

Police body cameras have served as a hotbed issue dogging Buttigieg and the South Bend Police Department for months following the shooting death of 54-year-old black man Eric Logan in June. During the incident, the police officer who shot Logan had his body camera off. Two other officers that arrived at the scene also didn’t turn their body cameras on.

Logan’s brother, Tyree Bonds, told Status Coup Mayor Buttigieg had “nothing to say” to his family after his brother’s death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q4ZSbL_bi0&t=660s

The current body camera policy for the South Bend Police Department is fairly vague, for the most part leaving it up to the officer’s judgment whether to turn on the camera or not.

An official complaint has been filed by the family of Mosgrove with South Bend Police Department’s Internal Affairs. The 21-year-old remains in jail.

The boy’s mother, Dialeshanailon Nailon, and family spokesperson, Vernado Malone, say the police department has not reached out to them for the original audio of the arrest and the officers’ comments, leaving one to wonder how exactly they are conducting an investigation (the Facebook livestream has been taken down.

Nailon previously told Status Coup the comments made by officers didn’t surprise her since the police department had a “history” of racism. She also said the comments weren’t “fair or funny,”

“We’re supposed to be able to trust them and they’re here to serve and protect and that’s not what’s going on.”

Mayor Buttigieg, whose campaign was previously caught by The Intercept inventing black support in South Carolina, and whose national support among black people has hovered in the low single digits, was criticized during the most recent Democratic debate for his political inexperience.

Status Coup will continue investigating the incident and seeking comment from Buttigieg and South Bend Police.

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