Law Enforcement Officers and Social Media

Law enforcement officers be advised: if you are going put anything on social media that reflects an opinion, it had better be a left-wing opinion, or you could end up in big trouble, like Mark Garrett:

The investigation into [California Highway Patrol] Chief Mark Garrett was initiated Monday after a [Los Angeles] Times reporter showed officials at CHP headquarters a message that the veteran highway patrol supervisor posted on his personal Facebook page.

That paragraph sums up the roll of the establishment media when it comes to freedom of speech online.

The entry, which Garrett posted in April 2017, shows a photo of [Bruce] Jenner that is overlaid with a transphobic and vulgar message. In bold type on Jenner’s image, it reads, “Anyone who says I’m not a lady can,” and then suggests the reader perform a sex act.

Sounds tasteless, but that isn’t the point. The point is that Bruce Jenner is a transsexual; any implied disrespect for transsexuals, their depraved lifestyle, or the nightmarish alterations they inflict on their bodies is a thought crime.

For now, we have been spared the standard groveling apology:

When confronted about the post, Garrett initially said he did not remember it.

“I have no recollection of it,” he said. “I am on Facebook very rarely.… If I shared it, I shared.”

The thought police are not going to let this unrepentant insouciance slide. He will be expected to crawl on his knees and beg the transgender community to forgive him — after which he will be fired anyway.

“That was a personal Facebook page, and it has nothing to do with the CHP,” said Garrett, the chief of the Los Angeles-area CHP.

Wrong. Thought crimes have to do with everything. Progressivism is a totalitarian ideology. There are no safe spaces from political correctness.

CHP spokeswoman Fran Clader has stridently denounced the Facebook post.

The Times attempted to contact Garrett on Tuesday and received an automated reply stating the chief would be out of the office through June 25.

It would be a pleasant surprise if Garrett ever resumes his duties.

If Garrett is perp-walked to the guillotine over the harmless meme, he won’t be the first.

The New York Police Department disciplined 17 officers in 2012 over offensive comments about a West Indian American Day parade.

A court of appeal last year, in upholding a five-day suspension for a Los Angeles police officer for a remark he wrote on Facebook, said the LAPD had the right to discipline him for his online conduct. …

In North Charleston, S.C., a police officer was fired for posting a photo of himself wearing Confederate flag underwear.

This is just the beginning. An industrial-scale purge is in the works.

A Philadelphia attorney has launched an extensive examination of the private social media accounts of nearly 3,000 law enforcement officers from eight departments nationwide. The resulting database is intended to show how hundreds of racist or bigoted comments and images from officers’ posts undermine the public trust, the project’s website says.

This refers to an initiative called the Plain View Project, led by Emily Baker-White. It is devoted to searching out cops with opinions leftists don’t like and exposing them for endorsing “racism and bigotry.”

Locally,

Facebook posts or comments attributed to 15 high-ranking members of the Philadelphia Police Department — a police inspector, six captains, and eight lieutenants — were among those included in a database published Saturday by a group researching what it considers police bias.

A police spokesperson says this is under investigation.

An example of a thought crime flagged by Plain View Project in Philadelphia refers to American student Otto Warmbier, who died after being imprisoned by North Korea.

[A] Facebook post called the case “an eye opener to how spoiled and coddled our youth of today are here in this weak PC country. Yet they act like animals and burn and step on our Flag that so many of our children died for defending our rights and our country.”

When utopia has been imposed, such speech will be unthinkable.

The likelihood that any heads will roll over left-of-center opinions are remote. Free speech on social media is increasingly becoming a one-way street.

On a tip from Doc. Hat tip: Clash Daily.

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