Photo via @melanie_fucillo/Twitter, City of Fall River Police Department/Facebook
April 23, 2021, 11:28 am
The Fall River Police Department in Massachusetts had to publicly apologize after sharing a Facebook post that blamed George Floyd for his own death by comparing his response to police brutality to Derek Chauvin “calmly” surrendering to arrest after being convicted of murder in a courtroom.
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“Derek Chauvin immediately stood and calmly placed his hands behind his back,” the post read. “Imagine where we’d be if George had done the same.”
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The now-deleted post was reportedly a screenshot of a tweet that, unfortunately, has not been deleted.
Chauvin immediately stood and calmly placed his hands behind his back.
Imagine where we’d be had George done the same.
—
Roberta’s World®
(@robertas_world) April 21, 2021
The post was also contained a comment from the original Facebook poster calling this sentiment “poignant.”
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George Floyd was murdered by former cop Derek Chauvin by kneeling on his neck for nearly 10 minutes straight, cutting off sufficient oxygen to Floyd’s brain. Body camera footage revealed during the trial showed that Floyd appeared to be having a panic attack after officers approached his car with guns out and tried to force him into the back of a police car, ignoring his pleas saying that he was claustrophobic and clearly in emotional distress.
Chauvin did not appear to be having an active panic attack at the time he was handcuffed in a quiet courtroom with no chance that he would be killed.
By Wednesday, the department had deleted the post and issued a new one claiming that it was shared by mistake by someone who forgot to switch to their personal account before tweeting that Floyd’s death was his own fault, along with an apology.
“It is with regret that the Fall River Police Department’s Facebook page was accessed by personnel who inadvertently re-posted an opinion that was meant for their own personal account,” they said. “The posting in no way represents the opinion of the Chief of Police or the Fall River Police Department.”
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The department posted a follow-up on Thursday expanding on their initial response and promising an investigation and possible “disciplinary action.” The message, signed by the Fall River chief of police, claimed that he was “personally disappointed these attitudes exist.”
“The officer involved has been transferred to an assignment that has no contact with the public,” Jeffrey Cardoza wrote. “There is going to be an independent investigator from outside the agency assigned to this case.”
No explanation was offered as to how the officer in question came to be employed in the department in the first place if their values didn’t fit with those allegedly held by the chief of police.
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The original Facebook post was of course captured by screenshot before it was deleted and spread on Twitter, and now both the department’s Facebook page and Twitter in general is full of comments expressing that a slap on the wrist for the offending officer is not going to be enough.
“‘No contact with the public’ isn’t sufficient,” wrote one Facebook commenter. “Someone who believes it’s acceptable to murder an already-subdued suspect has no business serving on any police force in any capacity, whether it’s public-facing or not.”
*First Published: April 23, 2021, 11:28 am
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