McKinney Pool Party Update: Google Search Shows KKK Member-Police Image After Hackers Promise Online Campaign

Someone on Tuesday outwitted Google’s photo search engine algorithm, which pulled in an unflattering image for search results for the police department in McKinney, Texas. The search engine’s standard organization profile – typically a photo, location map and contact information located to the right of search results – included a split-screen image of a Ku Klux Klan member and a police officer.

“So, which uniform should a person of color fear more?” read a message written among the spilt-screen image. The McKinney Police Department has taken a considerable amount of heat since video emerged Saturday showing one of its officers shoving, wrestling and drawing his weapon on teenagers attending a pool party there Friday. The officer has been suspended pending an investigation.

It’s unlikely that the Google image result was engineered by a hacker. However, the hacker group Anonymous promised Sunday that it would launch an online campaign against the McKinney Police Department.

"We want accountability," a member of Anonymous told the outlet Mic. "We want the authority figures depicted [in the video] to step up and take responsibility for their despicable behavior."

The group also asked for the identity of a white male in plain clothes who was seen assisting the police in handcuffing teenagers, in the now-viral video of the police response to the pool party. Anonymous has called for police Cpl. Eric Casebolt to be fired or resign.

The hacking group did not say what other actions it would take in its online campaign. Anonymous has been known to go after police departments that have been ensnared in public scandals over brutality and lethal force. Following the decision not to charge a police officer in Madison, Wisconsin, who fatally shot unarmed biracial teen Tony Robinson, Anonymous released the names, ages, addresses and phone numbers of the Madison police force.