Seven San Francisco police officers are being dismissed by Greg Suhr, the San Francisco police chief, for racist texts. The officers in question either sent or received texts that talked about lynching African-Americans and burning crosses. Suhr says the text correspondences happened in 2011 and 2012 and “are of such despicable thinking that those responsible clearly fall below the minimum standards required to be a police officer.”

Officials have acknowledged that the text messages have shaken confidence in the Police Department, which serves one of the most diverse cities in the country. San Francisco prides itself on being inclusive and open-minded. The racist text messages, sent and received by SFPD officers, including one that simply said “White Power”, also made derogatory comments about homosexuals, Mexicans and Filipinos. In San Francisco where the population boasts a large gay and lesbian demographic, this is especially concerning.

Defense lawyers for the officers facing the heat now claim that the texts do not reflect the actual personal beliefs of those who participated, but were instead just naïve banter meant to blow off steam in their stressing jobs. Despite this proposition, the city’s district attorney and public defender offices have launched investigations into each of the offending officers that date back 10 years to ensure that there are no instances in the officers’ histories that may suggest they were acting in accordance with the racist ideas and thoughts passed through their text messages.

Jeff Adachi, San Francisco’s public defender, said there were at least 1,000 cases that needed to be reviewed. The texts were originally disclosed last month as part of a federal corruption case against Sgt. Ian Furminger and the investigations into the other officers will continue.