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Kelly: NYPD Cops' Facebook Rant On West Indian Day Parade 'Unacceptable'

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says internal affairs now believes at least 20 offensive Facebook comments about the city's annual West Indian Day Parade could have been made by NYPD officers.

Cops were said to have allegedly posted comments disparaging the parade and its participants.

Public defenders preparing a case stumbled upon the comments in a public Facebook group. Several dozen comments, many that appeared to be from current or former NYPD officers, were posted.

Click here to read the comments (.pdf)

Discussion topics among its 1,200 supporters included how difficult it is to police the parade. Some comments called it "ghetto training,'' and a "scheduled riot.''

One apparent cop suggests: "drop a bomb and wipe them all out."

Another wrote: "let them kill each other – a two-day event for these animals."

Many of the comments express fear about working West Indian weekend. Two cops were injured by gunfire this year.

"IAB has determined that 20 offensive comments were associated with names that match those of police officers," Kelly said in a statement issued Wednesday.

He said internal affairs is issuing subpoenas for computer records and doing interviews.

"It is disturbing when anyone denigrates a community with hateful speech. It is unacceptable when police officers do it," Kelly said in the statement. "Despite the assertion of First Amendment rights in social media cases, the Police Department reserves the right to discipline behavior it determines to be unbecoming of a police officer or detrimental to the service, especially when it is disrespectful of communities that officers have taken an oath to protect."

Departmental charges may be brought.

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(TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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