Commenting on Facebook how “unfortunate” it is that more black people haven’t died of COVID-19 gets a a Louisiana cop has been fired afterwards.
As Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards led a live-streamed press conference on Facebook last week, a commenter posted on the live feed, “Virus that was created to kill all the blacks is death.”
Kaplan police officer Steven Aucoin followed up, “Well it didn’t work,” and again commented, “How unfortunate.” Kaplan Police Chief Joshua Hardy affirmed that this behavior is not tolerated within his department and immediately terminated Aucoin following an investigation of the thread.
He stated, “We’re held to a higher standard than normal civilians, so you got to watch what you do, you got to watch what you say. You can’t just go and post anything you want on social media.” He adds that as they dug through the thread, “There were some comments that were further up that was not suitable for a police officer to put up on Facebook.”
The Chief’s decisions have been met with backlash as Louisiana native, firefighter and army veteran Joshua Brothers suggest Aucoin’s comments were taken out of context. He says, “The newest update [to Facebook] doesn’t put the comments in consecutive order like it used to. ‘s not a timeline thing. Relevant, newer comments might be above. Some comments aren’t listed at all.”
In addition, a Kaplan resident, Victoria Verdun, claims Aucoin’s termination was a mistake and that he’s a good officer. She says, “He’s the only one that follows the rule book. He doesn’t yell or curse at you like other officers do and I just don’t think it’s right. He’s far from a racist. He’s far from rude or whatever else people are calling him. He is just a man trying to provide for his family.”
