VIDEO: Internal Affairs Investigating Officer’s Facebook Comment
A public squabble between a local activist and a Chattanooga police officer in Tennessee has sparked an internal affairs investigation and raised concerns among officers about their right to privacy.
The incident started a week ago Thursday when Officer William Puckett and local activist Chris Brooks commented on a Facebook post about racial injustice. Puckett, who has been on the police force since 2002, made two comments that suggested Brooks shouldn’t discuss racial injustice because he has never been a police officer.
One comment the officer posted caused much of the uproar: “Other than television, do you have any real life experience?” the officer wrote. “I doubt it. Real men work, b*****s cheer from the sidelines.”
Brooks, one of the founding members of Chattanooga Organized for Action, a nonprofit social justice group, immediately spoke out about the comments, which he called “deeply inappropriate.”
In the days since, Police Chief Fred Fletcher started an internal affairs investigation into whether Puckett violated the Chattanooga P.D.’s social media policy, a local resident filed a complaint against Puckett, and Brooks submitted an open records request for all of Puckett’s text messages from the past two years.
Do you think law enforcement officers should be restricted in terms of posting on social media? Leave your comment below.
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