Head of NYPD workplace discrimination office is suspended after allegedly writing anonymous posts calling Obama a Muslim savage and urging officers to call in sick during BLM protests

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Deputy Inspector James Kobel, 50, is accused of penning attacks on black and Jewish people, women, members of the LGBTQ community and others for more than a year on the website 'Rant'

The head of the New York Police Department's workplace discrimination office has been relieved of his command as he is investigated over racist posts he allegedly made to an online message board. 

Deputy Inspector James Kobel, 50, is accused of penning attacks on black and Jewish people, women, members of the LGBTQ community and others for more than a year on the website 'Rant', where NYPD officers can air their grievances anonymously. 

The posts included tirades in which he allegedly called former President Barack Obama a 'Muslim savage' and Mayor Bill de Blasio's black son, Dante, a 'brillohead'.

The attacks were made using the pseudonym 'Clouseau,' a reference to the bumbling French detective in the 'Pink Panther' films, but investigators have identified Kobel as the possible author because of personal information the posts gave away.  

Kobel denies that he is 'Clouseau' but the police commissioner on Thursday confirmed the officer was relieved of command and placed on a modified assignment as the investigation continues. 

'I am unfamiliar with any of these posts,' Kobel told the New York Times, who first reported the allegations. 'I'm unfamiliar with "Clouseau". I don't post on the Rant.'

'Nonetheless, despite my denial, it will likely end my career,' he added.  'Where do I go to get my reputation back?' 

Commissioner Dermot Shea called the postings 'abhorrent' and 'utterly disgusting'. 

'That is a drastic step, but we thought it would be an appropriate step due to the nature of his assignment, as well as the allegations and what we have learned so far,' Shea told reporters. 

Kobel, the commanding officer of the Equal Employment Opportunity Division, could be fired after an internal investigation, Shea added.

Kobel was the head of the New York Police Department's workplace discrimination office

The anonymous posts allegedly made by Kobel included an attack on New York City's openly gay City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, as pictured above

The attacks were made using the pseudonym 'Clouseau,' a reference to the detective in the 'Pink Panther' films, but investigators have identified Kobel as the possible author

The allegations against Kobel were detailed in a report that the New York City Council Oversight and Investigations Division panel will make public Friday. 

The NYPD said it received a draft of the report on October 14 and immediately started an internal probe. Kobel has cooperated with the investigation, Shea said.

'The report attributed comments made in an internet chat room to Kobel that included numerous instances of prejudice, sexism and intolerance,' the NYPD said in a statement Thursday. 

'While the evidence provided in the written report was circumstantial, it merited immediate investigation by the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau.'

'Deputy Inspector Kobel has cooperated with the investigation, but given the nature of the allegations and the sensitivity of his assignment, the decision has been made to remove him while the investigation proceeds.'

The oversight panel, led by Council Member Ritchie Torres, revealed a 13-page draft report of its findings that was seen by the Times. 

It had first launched a probe into the posts during the summer when a member of Torres' staff spotted them on 'Rant' while casually scrolling on the site after it had been mentioned in New York Magazine.  

The report detailed some 500 posts from the anonymous account on the site 'Rant'

The panel discovered that more than 500 posts under the 'Clouseau' handle were made on 'Rant' between June 2019 and September 2020. 

In messages posted on the website, 'Clouseau' referred to Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark as a 'gap-tooth wildebeest' and ridiculed Public Advocate Jumaane Williams for having Tourette's syndrome. 

Both men are black. 

He also described Eric Garner, the black man whose 2014 chokehold death in police custody helped spark the Black Lives Matter movement, as 'a morbidly obese, diabetes havin', high blood pressure ignorin', asthma havin', chicken wing eatin', grape soda drinkin', loosie sellin' fat bastard' who died of his 'poor dietary choices'. 

According to the report, the posts encouraged NYPD officers to call out sick this June as large demonstrations hit NYC following to death of George Floyd. 

'Sadly the blue flu needs to be spread nationwide and more furious than the Wuhan Flu,' the post read. 

Black men were not his only target. The writer also called Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a Somali-American Democrat, a 'filthy animal'. 

And he launched on an attack on NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who is white and gay, when he asked for an investigation into the department’s use of pedestrian stops. 

'Perhaps we should all take a step back from Stop, Question, and Maybe Frisk, until dear old Corey ends up the victim of a crime in one of the local bathhouses,' Clouseau wrote.  

Kobel as denied being behind the posts and his union claims he could have been framed

City Council investigators linked the messages to Kobel by matching information in the 'Clouseau' messages to publicly available details about Kobel's life and career.

Yet the NYPD has noted that the investigation is not yet complete and Kobel could still be cleared. 

According to the Times, Kobel handed over his phone to the investigation and an appraisal from co-workers showed the postings to be out of character from his public persona and reputation. 

Richard Esposito, the deputy commissioner of public information, told the Times, however, that 'the evidence at this stage points at the police executive'. 

The investigation found an email on Kobel's personal computer that acknowledged a 'Rant' user name as 'Closueau' and it found a picture on his phone similar to that used in the user's avatar on the site. 

Torres told the Times that the oversight panel was 'as confident as I could be' that Kobel and 'Clouseau' were the same person. 

It noted one post in which 'Clouseau' referenced the night he had joined the police department, which lined up with the time Kobel would have joined the force. 

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said that Kobel could be fired after the investigation

Another post also used an obscene slur against women in which 'Clouseau' says he worked under 'JJ' in 'Housing'. 

Kobel’s LinkedIn page reveals he served in the department’s Housing Bureau for two years when it run by a female chief, Joanne Jaffe.

The report also lined up the dates on which Kobel became engaged to his wife and his mother died through information provided in posts by 'Clouseau'.  

The NYPD is already facing calls to fire the officer, including a push from Torres, who won a seat in Congress on Tuesday.  

'The virulent bigotry of Deputy Inspector James Kobel has no place in the NYPD, much less in the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity. The shocking nature of his misconduct calls for nothing less than termination,' Torres said in a statement Thursday.

'They should fire him,' added Council member Donovan Richards, who chairs the council’s public safety committee.  

Yet the NYPD Captains' Endowment Association, the union that represents Kobel, has come to his defense and suggested that he is being framed. 

It noted that some of the autobiographical details mentioned in the posts could have been discovered about Kobel online and used against him. 

'Clearly, he has angered some people along the way. In any event, he looks forward to being fully exonerated when all the facts come out,' president Christopher Monahan told the New York Daily News. 

'The CEA plans on doing their own investigation, including computer forensics, to dispute the department's position that it points to him.' 

Kobel, a 28-year member of the department, was the second-in-command in the Equal Employment Opportunity office for four years before being elevated to commanding officer in May.

The office is responsible for preventing and investigating employment and harassment claims and has implemented policy changes in recent years providing for lactation rooms, enabling officers to wear religious head coverings and making accommodations for transgender officers.