LUNA'S ANTI-BLACK RACISM AND RETALIATION
RACISM TOWARDS BLACK AND LATINO OFFICERS INSIDE THE LONG BEACH POLICE DEPARTMENT.
LUNA HAS DEMONSTRATED RACIAL BIAS AGAINST AFRICAN AMERICANS.
Robert Luna failed to protect a whistleblower who exposed a racist drawing that depicted a black man hanging from a noose. Long Beach Police officer Mark McGuire, an African American police officer who went on to have a distinguished career as a Long Beach homicide Detective, saw first hand this racist drawing and immediately reported it to his then Sergeant, Robert Luna. The drawing included a Black man hanging from a noose and the poster was hung inside one of the police stations. Luna not only helped the detective with the drawing to get only a minor reprimand, he outed McGuire as the whistleblower who was called to speak to the Chief of Police about his report the NEXT MORNING. McGuire had a distinguished career yet never made it past Sergeant.
LUNA DISCRIMINATED AGAINST AFRICAN AMERICANS INSIDE THE LONG BEACH POLICE DEPARTMENT.
The Long Beach Police Department has a long history of being an organization run and led by White Men. As the City has become more diverse, the old White Guard maintained its control of the department by discriminating against people of color and women.
- Under Robert Luna only 27% of his command staff were women or people of color, even though the City is over 50% Black, Asian or Latinos.
- During Robert Luna’s 20 years as a Senior member of Long Beach Police hierarchy, Luna never once promoted a single Black woman
- During Luna’s term as Police Chief, he had two entire recruiting classes at the police academies that had NOT ONE African American in it.
WHY DID POLICE CHIEF LUNA NOT USE HIS POWER TO PUNISH HIS RACIST MANAGERS AND OFFICERS?
“Banana Peel on Hood of Car of only African American Pilot.”
Just as Robert Luna was retiring as police chief, one of his employees, Michael Colbert, an African American helicopter pilot, filed a lawsuit against the Long Beach Police Department and several of its police officers for 30 years of racial harassment and discrimination.
Colbert joined the Long Beach Department in 1989.
He retired from the department in 2019. He was the department’s only African American pilot.
Colbert argues that racism “is built into the culture” of the Long Beach police department. African American officers, he concluded, “feel isolated.”
A few months before retirement, Colbert found a banana peel placed on the hood of his police assigned car in an area with limited access.
“Mr. Popo”
The department’s chief pilot, also named Mike, regularly referred to Colbert as “Black Mike”. In September 2019, the chief pilot posted on his own office cubicle a drawing of the department’s patch with a racist caricature of a black genie. The drawing appeared after a conversation with Colbert about racist politicians dressing in blackface.
Why did police Chief Luna not use his power to punish his racist managers and officers?
Paid for by VILLANUEVA FOR LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF 2022, FPPC ID #1397275