A post Sunday on the Facebook page of a Missouri police union declared the one-year anniversary of the shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown to be “Darren Wilson Day,” after the police officer who killed him, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The post on the page of the Columbia Police Officers’ Association incited outrage in the college town, including among city officials. Protestors gathered Monday outside the police department, according to the newspaper.
The post said the shooting had nothing to do with race and referred to Wilson, who was a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, as an “innocent, but persecuted, officer,” according to the Post-Dispatch. It also said Wilson was innocent because of “the fact that he was thoroughly investigated… and found he did NOTHING wrong,” according to the report.
The post was shared almost 60 times, according to an ABC affiliate.
During the Monday demonstration, Columbia’s city manager and the police chief locked arms with demonstrators, according to the TV station.
The union is a “trade organization that is not accountable to the City of Columbia,” Robert McDavid, the mayor of Columbia posted on Facebook.
The original post appeared to have been deleted by Monday afternoon. But the union put up another Facebook post.
Is this how police defuse tensions?
Darren Wilson was found “Not Guilty” not innocent. A young man needlessly lost his life because Darren Wilson lost his temper.
He wasn’t found “not guilty” by my recollection. He just wasn’t indicted by the Grand Jury that Did. Not. Objectively. Investigate.
“Police Union In Missouri Declares ‘Darren Wilson Day’ On Shooting Anniversary”
Dumb idea…very very dumb.
The vast majority of police officers deserve our respect and gratitude, but all need to be reminded that their job is to protect and serve the PUBLIC. Their primary responsibility is to insure the safety of average citizens, even at the risk of their own safety. That is what they signed up for and that is what they are paid to do.
The loss of any unarmed citizen’s life at the hands of a police officer is most definitely not something to be celebrated.