2 St. Louis police officers fired over social media posts
Two St. Louis police officers have been fired over social media posts, their lawyer told CBS affiliate KMOV-TV. Officers Thomas Mabrey and Ronald Hasty are appealing their terminations to the Civil Service Commission, their lawyer, Brian Millikan, told the station last Monday.
"We look forward to vigorously defending both officers' reputations and are confident their actual records as police officers, and not Facebook shares and likes posted as private citizens will ultimately rule the day," Millikan said.
Posts by the two officers were cited by the Plain View Project, which flagged thousands of racist and derogatory social media posts, including some from 22 St. Louis Metro officers. One of the posts from a St. Louis officer compared Black Lives Matter to the KKK.
Earlier this year, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department announced they were investigating allegations that several current and former officers made racist, violent, homophobic, and anti-Muslim posts on Facebook, KMOV reported.
As CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues reported in August, hundreds of officers in multiple states have been exposed for racist social media posts attacking minorities and promoting racial stereotypes.
Heather Taylor, an almost 19-year veteran on the St. Louis Metro police force, said that the culture among her department's top brass is allowing bad cops to slip through the cracks.
"Do you think that there are white supremacists on the police force?" asked CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues.
"Yes" said Heather Taylor, an almost 19-year veteran on the St. Louis Metro police force.
"You didn't even pause," Pegues said.
"Have you seen some of the Facebook posts of some of our suspended officers right now?" Taylor responded. "Yes."
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