Karl Etters,
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A Wakulla
County Sheriff's Deputy was suspended Wednesday after posting insensitive
comments on social media following a Ferguson, Missouri, grand jury's decision
not to indict a police officer in the killing of a black teen.
WCSO Deputy Richard Moon was
suspended with pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation, Sheriff
Charlie Creel said.
Creel said the incident is not
indicative of his department as a whole.
"Very insensitive remarks
have been made and we're going to get to the bottom of it," Creel told the
Tallahassee Democrat. "I don't condone these kinds of actions. We treat
everybody equally, and if somebody does not treat somebody equally, I will
discipline them."
Moon wrote the following post
on his Facebook page: "Damn cockroaches! Squashem all !!!! I say we rally
for Wilson (the officer in Missouri), who's with me?"
Several other deputies,
including Undersheriff Trey Morrison and Deputy Jeff Carroll, also commented in
the same thread, but have not been suspended.
Carroll posted the following
comment: "I'm already in tally, get it going! Haha."
Creel said he would implement
another round of training on racial diversity within the department. That
training is already standard.
"Expressing an opinion
about something on social media is certainly the right of the individual when
they are off duty," Creel wrote in an open letter, "but in no way do
these views expressed in the posts reflect the opinion of the Sheriff's Office
or the members of this agency."
Morrison shared a nationally
syndicated political cartoon meant to comment on rioters and looters destroying
their own communities. It depicts an African American male in a black T-shirt
labeled "Ferguson Missouri." He's holding a gun to his head, and the
gun is labeled "Violence." He has on a black ball cap with the word,
"Loot" on it. The man is saying, "Back off or the community gets
it."
Morrison said civil protesting
is not what he took issue with, instead it was the widespread violence and
vandalism following the decision.
"I'm not against anybody
protesting," Morrison said. "My frustration is that one percent that
always takes it too far and wants to destroy property."
Morrison added that Creel is
right to take issue with the deputies' comments.
"I shouldn't be commenting
on anything," he added.
Creel said the internal affairs
review would include interviews with Moon to determine if the comment was
"malicious or if it was intentional or aggravated," and would move
forward after that.
Vice President of the Florida
State Conference of the NAACP Northern Branch Dale Landry said the cockroach
comment is negative and demeaning to a large number of people.
"That's a very demeaning
comment," said Landry, who was a police officer for 21 years. "How
many people down in Wakulla would also fall under what he calls a
cockroach?"
Landry said Moon's comments and
Morrison's contribution, instead of stopping the posts, reflect poorly on WCSO.
"Very seldom do you see
the bad cops catch the hell," Landry said. "It's always the good cops
that respond, it's always the good cops that fall behind the foolishness of the
bad. This right here is so problematic because it's a direct reflection on
Sheriff Creel."
Landry said the national and
state branches of the NAACP are coordinating a town hall meeting in Wakulla
County. The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday at New Bridge Hope
Missionary Baptist Church, 1282 Spring Creek Highway in Crawfordville.
Community members in Wakulla
have been working to establish an NAACP branch there, which may be expedited by
the incident, Landry said.
With attention focused on
police and citizen interaction both locally and nationally, most law
enforcement officials recognize the comments as not OK, Landry said.
"There's a small
subculture," he said. "When it shows its head, we've got to be
effective immediately to eliminate it so it doesn't continue to poison the
majority that are doing a great job that are professional."
Creel said he hoped the swift
action and internal review would bring Wakulla County together.
"We're going to get
through this," Creel said. "We're going to come together as a
community. It's going to make everybody stronger."
