Incident

Incident Description

13 days before a white supremacist lynched ten Black people in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, Police Captain and head the Behavioral Health Team, Amber Beyer read aloud a Facebook post by a resident with a mental illness that the behavioral team was going to check on. In the post, the resident freely used a racial slur that targets Black people. Beyer yelled out the word as she read the post to members of her team,

In her racist rant, Beyer said Black cops were more likely to cheat on their wives than white cops and she’d be suspicious if she saw a Black man in her neighborhood. She claimed white police officers suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from working in Black neighborhoods, but Black officers did not, because they were more accustomed to violent crime. Beyer told Black officers they should try to understand how the criminality of Black people justified some racism. Beyer offered these opinions on May 2 in the Behavioral Health Team’s office in police headquarters on Court Street.

Outcome

A lawsuit was filed in federal court by two Buffalo police officers and a civilian mental health clinician. The civil rights complaint is still being litigated.

Beyer was put on a 30-day unpaid suspension. She no longer heads the Behavioral Health Team and has been reassigned.

The Behavioral Health Team pairs police officers with mental health clinicians to respond to calls regarding people having mental health crises.