Houston Police Officers’ Union Calls Gonzalez Video “Extremely Disturbing” as Authenticity Investigation Underway
The Houston Police Officers’ Union called the video of Gonzalez “extremely disturbing,” and said the Houston Police Department is investigating its authenticity.
A Houston police officer has been removed from her position pending investigation by the Houston Police Department after a social media video of a racist, anti-Black rant went viral.
The video of Ashley Gonzalez, a former U.S. Marine Corps member who joined the HPD in 2024, allegedly shows her going on a tirade about Black people where she uses the N-word multiple times, disparages the descendants of slavery, and threatens to put the next Black person who calls 911 in jail.
Gonzalez Describes Alleged Altercation in Video
Gonzalez also appears to describe an altercation she had with a Black person who was attempting to steal from her when she was out with a friend, though it isn’t clear whether she was on or off duty at the time. She recalls grabbing a person by the neck and calling them the N-word.
“Y’all don’t know how good it felt to say [N-Word] out loud. Oh my God, I felt like I was back in the Marine Corps,” she says in one part of the video.
Officer’s Background Confirmed by Local Reporting
Houston broadcaster KPRC 2 confirmed that Gonzalez served in the Marine Corps from 2019 to 2023 before she joined the police force in 2024. The outlet also reported that she had logged 1,600 hours of coursework for the Houston Police Academy and other law enforcement organizations.
Union Says Video Is Extremely Disturbing
The Houston Police Officers’ Union released a statement saying the organization is extremely disturbed by the video, saying the HPD “prides itself as being the most diverse police department in the nation, largely a product of that collaborative changes to civil service law that the HPOU and the Department have made through our meet and confer process.”
“It is our belief that the Department is diligently working to confirm the authenticity of this video and will take appropriate measures to ensure public confidence and trust between our Department and our community,” the statement said.
