‘Go Back to the Reservation’: Cop Investigated After Admitting to Racial Slur on Video

A California police officer, while harassing a Native American man for working on his car, used a demeaning racial slur and told him to “go back to the reservation.”

Eureka, CA — A video uploaded to YouTube this week has put the small town of Eureka, California’s police force on the radar as it shows one of their officers admitting to telling a Native American man to “go back to the reservation.”

An internal investigation is now underway after the department became aware of the situation. According to the person who took the video, Pete Yellow Bird, the incident began as he was attempting to work on his car last Thursday.

Yellow Bird says he had just put ramps under his wheels to work on his car when he was approached by Officer Drake Goodale and his partner, Det. Neil Hubbard — both with the city’s quality-of-life POP unit.

A POP unit or Problem Oriented Policing Unit is a proactive police force that patrols neighborhoods and encourages police to have one-on-one communications with neighbors to build relationships.

The officer in this POP unit, however, allegedly had no desire to build any community relationship with Yellow Bird.

The officers said they approached Yellow Bird to tell him that he couldn’t work on his vehicle in the public parking lot despite it not being illegal….more here