St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar apologized Thursday for an “insensitive” Facebook post his department shared about the police shooting of a 12-year-old in Cleveland.
The department took heat earlier Thursday morning when it blasted out a post titled “Kids will be Kids?” that encouraged parents to discuss with children who have toy guns how to respond if a police officer approaches them. The post used the fatal shooting of Tamir Rice by a white Cleveland police officer who mistook his toy gun for a real weapon as a jumping off point.
“The intention of the post was to inform citizens about the potential danger of airsoft or pellet guns resembling real guns,” Belmar said in a statement. “However, the post was a misguided communication strategy and was offensive to many people.”
“As Chief of Police, I apologize to Tamir’s family and anyone who was offended by the post,” he said, adding that its message “was insensitive to Tamir’s family and the sorrow they are currently experiencing.”
Belmar also said that the department would be revising its social media policy to prevent such mistakes in the future. The Facebook post that caused such a stir was written by an officer in the City of Fenton Precinct, and Belmar said he was unaware of the post until it went live.
huh…they didn’t make a post like this when that old clown in his pajamas stood out on the street with a gun on his shoulder and screamed out at cops (whom stayed a distance away from the guy) and didn’t get arrested and got his gun back. why no post then?
Cops will be cops !
“Insensitive”? Bwahahahahahaha!!! That post, not to mention the rest of their bullshit rationalizations and their supporters’ nonsense, amounts to the same thing as an abuser shouting “NOW LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!!!” If that’s “insensitive,” then slavery was merely “insulting.”
Solution: Fire every police force in every major city from desk clerk to the chief. The water is completely tainted. Do over.
Insensitive? Mistake? Cut the PC bullshit chief. a portion of your force has shown themselves to be hopeless racists.They “hate effin ni##ers!”…do the right thing and fire them to begin a process of reform that begins to reflect the values expected in largely white communities that is apparently unknown elsewhere.