Special to the Vanguard
Sacramento, CA – A letter on Thursday from Betty Williams, president of the Greater Sacramento chapter of the NAACP, noted that Kate Adams, retired in September as chief of the Rancho Cordova Police Department, which operates under a contract with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, was “placed on an extended administrative leave” prior to her retirement.
Williams wrote that Adams sent “racially charged” pictures via text message “to many other Sheriff’s Department employees.”
The caption reads: “Go be a n—– somewhere else.”
“It cannot be classified as a joke,” Williams wrote. “It’s an obvious racist depiction.”
The NAACP is now joined by Senator Steven Bradford and the CA Legislative Black Caucus.
“(W)e use this moment to recognize that social media messaging is used as a pathway to perpetuate racism 
while also exposing those who use racism in their positions of power,” the NAACP said in a statement on Friday. “Rancho Cordova’s Chief Adams had a responsibility to stand against racism and bias. Instead, what has been communicated to the GSNAACP is a person who finds the historic and traumatizing use of hoses against Black people a mockery.”
The statement continued, “Even worse, the image with the caption shows precisely how little Black children are thought of in a country where white supremacy dominates cultures of law enforcement. And later, that same culture in law enforcement is used consciously and unconsciously to criminalize our youth.”
The NAACP noted that Sacramento County jails are 40% Black while the population is barely 11%.
“Our youth injustice system reflects similarly. We must transform our systems of punishment—law enforcement being one of those systems,” the statement noted. “Until we hold white people accountable for perpetuating cultures of racism and white supremacy, we cannot change mass incarceration, poverty, and education opportunity. Supporting legislation is one lever to change these devastatingly harmful structures.”
CA passed the Racial Justice Act in 2020, a law that the NCAAP said should be used in this investigation.
“There is an opportunity to bolster that law with 2022’s AB 256. And there is one law, SB 2 that speaks directly to the current situation,” they continued.
Senator Bradford previously described the passing of SB 2, “California and the nation as a whole has experienced tragedy after tragedy where consequences for egregious abuses of power went unpunished and cries for accountability went unanswered— eroding public trust in law enforcement.
“This bill is the first of its kind in California and we finally join the 46 other states with processes for the decertification of bad officers,” Bradford said. “SB 2 establishes a fair and balanced way to hold officers who break the public trust accountable for their actions and not simply move to a new department. This could not have been achieved without the support of many legislators, community organizations, families, and entertainers who advocated non-stop for accountability in our policing system.”
I wouldn’t describe this as an “update”, regarding verifying facts.
Given the false allegations that Ms. Williams put forth regarding an incident at a Sacramento school, I’d suggest actual verification is in order.
By the way, does the local NAACP chapter do anything positive for the community?
Or, do they view their role as primarily scrutinizing and publishing alleged or implied racism on the part of white people in particular, even when it turns out to not be true?
Is Ms. Williams at all embarrassed regarding her claims related to the incident at the Sacramento school? And, does the national NAACP organization have any concerns about that?
Does the Vanguard have an obligation to look into such claims, before publishing them?
Curious as to the racial makeup of the sheriff’s department itself, as well.
Is the allegation that Chief Adams forwarded this image to the entire department, including non-white officers? Or, did she allegedly single-out “white” officers/employees when forwarding it?
The article mentions “pictures” (plural) sent via text message. Does Ms. Williams claim to be in possession of those, as well? Who provided them to her?