White Deputy Is Suspended in Defacing of Book on Malcolm X

A white Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy accused of defecating on a book about black nationalist Malcolm X has been removed from law enforcement duty pending the outcome of an investigation, the Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday.

Assistant Sheriff Raymon Morris, in charge of the department’s custody division, said the episode allegedly took place at the Peter Pitchess Honor Rancho, one of the county’s jails, and involved two deputies on duty. He was asked to comment after a woman identifying herself as a jail employee called The Times to say that black personnel had protested the matter.

Morris would not identify the deputies involved but said a preliminary inquiry indicated that a white deputy, seeing an African-American deputy with a copy of “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” warned him that if he came to work with it again, he would defecate on it. When the black deputy brought in the book a second time, the white deputy allegedly carried out his threat.