NEW YORK — A 13-year veteran New York Police Department cop has been fired for sending a vile 2020 group text message mocking the death of George Floyd beneath a Minneapolis police officer’s knee, The New York Daily News has learned.
Probationary Sgt. Yonathan Bonifacio, whose dismissal became effective this past December, forwarded an image of Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin with his knee on Floyd’s neck as a white spirit was seen exiting the dead Black man’s body, NYPD disciplinary documents showed.
“Holy s---, I’m finally white,” says the Floyd character, while Chauvin is depicted as responding “You’re welcome.”
Bonifacio shared the message with nine subordinates, two of them Black officers, just three months after Floyd’s death ignited violence and mass protests across the country in the summer of 2020.
“Respondent’s dissemination of the image at this time ... was akin to tossing a lit match at the base of a powder keg,” reads the 12-page decision from an NYPD administrative judge. “(His) actions ... demonstrated exceedingly poor judgment and a disrespect for human life that is reprehensible and incompatible with police work.”
The officer also shared a separate image that included the words “F--- ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER,’ F--- ANTIFA, F--- KKK, F--- RACISM, F--- LOOTING HOODRATS, F--- ANYONE WHO BURNS OUR FLAG,” according to the document.
Court papers show Bonifacio entered a plea of guilty this past October, and subsequently testified on his own behalf in an effort to get the penalty reduced, officials said.
But the Dominican-American cop’s efforts fell on deaf ears, including a claim that he was offended by the cartoon and meant to add a comment explaining why he shared the material.
“I feel they’re putting words in my mouth,” Bonifacio told the Daily News Thursday, noting he never uttered the offensive words himself in the messages he shared. “But what are you going to do? They’re saying I said it, basically.”
The NYPD decision made clear that the department viewed the incidents differently.
“There exist certain acts taken by public officials which so irreparably taint the officer’s integrity that they are no longer capable of fulfilling their duties in a manner that would prevent further damage to the reputation and mission of the agency they serve,” read the ruling.
“Respondent, who has associated himself with undeniably racist and insensitive material, has cast a shadow upon the perceived integrity of his work product and that of the agency he serves.”
Before he was fired, Bonifacio was demoted to the rank of officer as the disciplinary process unfolded.
