Now, imagine if someone had tried to kill Joe Biden and a local police officer wished the bullet was a little bit over: would the news organizations all be covering this? Why, of course they would. Yet, in Raleigh, it’s only CBS17
“Damn. Only about an inch away from making America great again…”
Those 11 words have put a 24-year veteran member of the Tarboro Police Department on administrative leave pending an internal investigation. A screenshot of the post shared with CBS 17 shows the post made by Detective Sergeant Brandon Richardson.
Tarboro Chief of Police Rick Mann confirmed on Monday that Richardson is now under investigation.
On Monday, Chief Mann took to Facebook to address the post which has gained a wide range of reactions.
“We take this matter very seriously, as it does not reflect the values and standards of our department,” Chief Mann said in the post. “We understand that such incidents can affect public trust, and we are dedicated to handling this matter with the seriousness and accountability it deserves.”
Richardson is currently suspended, we’ll see what happens. Tarboro tends to be a city that skews Democrat, so, will this guy continue to be a police officer there? He has apologized and taken full responsibility, so, does he deserve a second chance?
Anyway, neither WRAL, ABC11, nor the Raleigh News and Observer have covered this. Down East, for the big news organizations in that area, WITN and WNCT did cover this, but, News12 and the Greenville News and Observer did not. The small My Tarboro Today has it, and
One person called Richardson’s comments free speech, while others pointed out he is a law enforcement officer and was, essentially, condoning a murder attempt on a former president of the United States.
“He is sworn to uphold the law and murder is still against the law,” one person wrote.
There is that. So, what happens? There are lots of nutters who did this. A staffer for Democrat Bennie Thompson has been fired. Here’s another police officer
Dallas PD officer accused of writing ‘aim better’ online after Trump assassination attempt. He should be fired immediately, for the combination of gross cruelty and stunning stupidity. https://t.co/E9JQxhsXdQ
— Mark Davis (@MarkDavis) July 16, 2024
You can see this stuff being highlighted all over Twitter, Facebook, and others.
Hey, it’s still perfectly legal to be a crass, moronic, asshole while making poor political, social and professional choices.
Not to say that there won’t be consequences, for this guy or anyone else that chooses this path, but I’m not seeing any laws broken here.
Toning down the rhetoric democratical style.
We have freedom of speech as a birthright Matthew so there’s nothing anybody can do about it. And period as an American I wouldn’t wanna do anything about it. I would do with this idiot would I do with idiots all over I just ignore him. I don’t even think he should lose his job to be honest with you. He should get about two weeks off with no pay to teach him a lesson about saying stupid things in public. He could say or think whatever he wants to himself or with his family but when you’re a public servant you gotta learn to have more prudence than that.
It’s like teachers masthead says: if we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all. That’s part of what separates us from the leftist we don’t wanna censor or zero out people from speaking who disagree with this like they do and continue to try and do all the time.
“…there’s nothing anybody can do about it…”
Absolutely, this detective or anyone else can publicly proclaim just about any opinion they want to, and we should all definitely have that right, no doubt.
What I meant by consequences is that sometimes an opinion, especially if it’s expressed in a way that is able to be documented, like this one, can cause a problem for yourself or others. No matter how it was intended when it was uttered.
One far-fetched but instructive example:
Let’s say Detective Dipshit arrests someone who just happens to have publicly endorsed Mr. Trump in the past. Any attorney worth their salt will use this, and any other social media posts, in court, to assert a bias on the part of Detective Dipshit. Plus, if he was not given an on-record admonishment by his superiors for the post(s), a bias of the entire Police Department. This could establish, or at least create the seed of, a reasonable doubt no matter how guilty the Trump supporter may be.
The consequence being that this rightfully legal expression of opinion could cause professional troubles for Detective Dipshit, his department, the prosecutor’s office, the judge, any alleged victims or even future victims of the defendants successfully using this tactic.
So, one perfectly legal social media opinion post can come back and bite you, and a lot of others, in the ass, over and over again, forever.
I allowed my son to have a social media account when he turned 15, but I advised him that before he hits send on anything to give it one simple test; “What would Grandma say if she read that?” It worked. I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess Detective Dipshit’s Grandma would not approve.
Freedoms also require that we take actions to defend them. Our enemies use our freedoms against us.
“Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.” – Karl Popper
And yes, it is a narrow path we must walk.
Everything you puked out is bullshit.
We have both freedom of speech and ubiquitous social media, enabling a whole lot of people to let us know just how utterly, utterly stupid they are.
Let’s face it: there are a whole lot of people who wish that the assassination attempt had been successful, and people’s innermost thoughts are not criminal. But expressing those thoughts in public can have consequences, and most people who might have felt the way the Detective did were at least smart enough not to post it on social media.
Detective Richardson knew it as well, at least in a limited context. He knew full well that if he referred to a suspect with the slang term for negro, in the earshot of anyone who might object, his career could come to a quick end. He knew that if he referred to any female personnel as the “c” word, he could lose his job.
So, what made him go all stupid and write what he did?
Chaya Raichik and Libs of TikTok have been doing yeoman’s work in digging up this kind of stuff and bringing it to the attention of sensible people.
Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences.
The 1st Amendment does not immunize one against criticism.
Of course, it’s a finer line when the “offender” is a govt official, e.g., detective.
A private employer can fire any employee for just about any reason including embarrassing the business.
Matthew: it’s still perfectly legal to be a crass, moronic, asshole while making poor political, social and professional choices
This is true.
For “Free Speech” I agree however is the ‘officer” to judge you more harshly if you have a DJT sign on you lawn or a DJT bumper sticker? It’s nice to know who the “enemy” is but being stupid with public comments isn’t a sign of intelligence.
The police union will make sure this “suspension” is a PAID VACATION and after this blows over and people are distracted by the next manufactured outrage this POS will be back on the job “protecting and serving” the shit out of society.