Politics

Absurd: Florida Officer Fired Over Facebook Comment Calling Trayvon A “Thug”?!

volusia-officer-trayvon-martin

This is ridiculous. An officer and lifeguard in Volusia, Florida was fired for simply offering an opinion about the Trayvon incident.

From the Daytona Beach Journal:

Snipes’ messages included a Facebook post the night after George Zimmerman’s acquittal that read: “Another thug gone. Pull up your pants and be respectful. Bye bye thug r.i.p.”

He was also involved in an exchange of a series of racially tinged picture messages that included a cartoon of Trayvon Martin, holding a bag of Skittles. The words across the cartoon were: “Those Skittles were to die for.”

While somewhat distasteful, how is this “racially tinged”? Just because Trayvon was black?

What’s a good race-mongering story without the ACLU to chime in:

“I am glad that he was fired, rather than him having the option or the opportunity to resign,” said Cynthia Slater, president of the Volusia branch of the NAACP. “Because if that were the case, they would be sending the message to employees that it’s OK to send out those kinds of racist emails. . . . It’s unacceptable, and I’m glad that they really took a look at the damage that this has caused — and would have caused if they let this guy off the hook.”

Again, was it somewhat vulgar and insensitive? Yes. Is it grounds for dismissal? I hope he appeals the decision and wins against this absurd witch-hunt on free speech.