Philadelphia Police investigate photo of officer in blackface

Philadelphia Police are now investigating a photo posted to social media by one of their veteran officers. Hung Nguyen, a 22-year-old veteran officer, is featured in the controversial photo wearing a wig and a blackface while eating a plate of fish and grits.

The photo was posted to Facebook last week sometime around Halloween and sparked outrage by many immediately. Philly Police were made aware of the photo on Tuesday.

Hung Nguyen has since been put in desk duty with Philadelphia Police investigating if it is truly Nguyen in the photo and whether or not he posted it.

“We don’t know the nexus of the photo,” Philadelphia Police Captain Sekou Kinebrew said. “It could have been some sort of computer graphic that we see, or it could be something he physically applied on himself. That’s something we are looking to ascertain.”

NBC10 reached out to the Philadelphia Police officer in question. He told the news outlet he was upset over the photo and shared that it was under investigation before hanging up.

Public outraged by controversial photo

Head of the Guardian Civic League, Rochelle Bilal, who leads the group of minority officers, shared that she is disgusted by the image that appeared on Facebook.

“If he is the one who put the blackface on and the bush and put all of it out there, then he shouldn’t be a police officer,” Bilal said. “I don’t know authentically if it’s his image but you put it on your page and you left it there, for everybody to see.”

Several members of the public are calling on Philadelphia Police to fire the officer.