A former assistant police chief in Kentucky told a recruit who asked what he should do if he catches teenagers smoking marijuana, “If black shoot them,” according to new documents released Friday.

The recruit, who has not been named, asked the former Assistant Police Chief Todd Shaw what “the right thing” to do would be, and Shaw responded, “Fuck the right thing,” according to documents reviewed by local media. “If black shoot them.”

Shaw continued, saying, “[C]all their rents … if mom is hot then fuck her … if dad is hot then handcuff him and make him suck my dick. Unless daddy is black. … Then shoot him.”

In another message, Shaw said, “For years I have seen the blacks live off uss [sic] and putting them in one big housing area breeds HUGE peoblems [sic] … We don’t see a Muslim problem around here we just see lazy ass people that don’t want to work and that entices more Mexicans to cross the border and take the American jobs.”


Of Martin Luther King Jr., Shaw said the civil rights leader was “nothing but a raciast (sic) womanizer … but because someone shot him, I get a day off with pay each year so I will take it.”

Shaw also lamented that he couldn’t shoot more people of color, writing in a Facebook message, “What has policing come to when all you can shoot are white people and injured deer.”

Shaw resigned from the Prospect Police Department in suburban Louisville late last year. He was initially suspended without pay last September while the department conducted an investigation into his conduct after Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell wrote to Prospect Mayor John Evans saying that Shaw had sent “highly disturbing racist and threatening Facebook messages.”

The department conducted an investigation and, after presenting the findings to Shaw in late November, Shaw resigned. Since then, Shaw has reportedly fought to keep his messages from being released to the media after local outlets requested them under public records laws, but they were released Friday.

The messages were originally discovered while Shaw was being investigated for allegedly interfering in a sexual abuse probe. Since they surfaced, O’Connell has determined not to move forward with any prosecutions in which Shaw might be called to testify, and said he would notify defense attorneys about the messages.


Prosecutors are also reportedly in the process of dismissing about two dozen cases because of Shaw’s credibility problems — and rightfully so. Louisville Metropolitan Council President David James told local media that he worries Shaw’s bias might have led to wrongful arrests.

“It only takes one incident like this one to cover the entire department with embarrassment, shame and humiliation,” James said. “What has he done to people of color in our community?”