Alabama officers suspended for alleged 'white power' gesture

[demmiblue]

An Alabama mayor says four members of his city's police force have been suspended for making a hand gesture some say is a hate symbol.

Jasper Mayor David O'Mary tells news outlets the four Jasper officers have been suspended and will lose a week's pay following the publication of a photograph in the Jasper Daily Mountain Eagle on July 12. O'Mary is pictured in that photo alongside several officers, four of whom are making an upside-down "OK" sign with their fingers. He says some have claimed the gesture is meant to express "white power."

The mayor says he arranged that photo to recognize the narcotics team following a drug bust. He says he hasn't asked the officers what they meant by the gesture, but says they showed "poor judgment."


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-alabama-police-white-power-gesture-20180717-story.html

[Scurrilous]

1. From the looks of the house, they obviously caught a kingpin.

[malaise]

2. LOL

[sarah FAILIN]

7. Same group is also famous for the great peanut butter escape

Funny and sad
https://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/07/peanut_butter_used_to_trick_yo.html

[Scurrilous]

9. Straight out of Idiocracy.

[HopeAgain]

3. It's frightening that they are allowed to carry guns

If we know they are racists, they should be fired. Our police are becoming our enemies.

[superpatriotman]

4. White power cops in the Alabama police?!

Docking a whole week's pay and a suspension should fix that problem.

[sarah FAILIN]

6. They got 2 weeks off.

Not sure about the paid or unpaid.

[sarah FAILIN]

5. I got in an argument with their buddies last night

I'm literally 30 minutes from there. They are trying to whine that it's just a kids game and trying to get other officers to start a "blue flu".
I told them a kkk member told me it was a white power sign. They doubted this person was really kkk.. I gave them a phone number this kid gave me to prove he was kkk.. Thy still denied it was true and claimed they weren't going to call a strange number but I know they did, lol. They gave theirself away. They just refuse to admit their cop friends are racists.
Scary part.. these guys are our local paramedics and firefighters. One local firefighter has already threatened to put my fb pics on porn not knowing he couldn't see pics of me.

[Lee-Lee]

10. It isn't a white power symbol. Never was

You and probably the KKK member (if is a real KKK member and not some kid just spouting off stuff he saw online) your talking to have both fallen hook, line and sinker for a well documented trolling by 4chan.

https://www.adl.org/blog/no-the-ok-gesture-is-not-a-hate-symbol

[sarah FAILIN]

14. I'll give you the number he gave me

The kid is straight up racist, but you call and see if you think the kid is just spouting off stuff. I've called the number several times myself when I give it to someonel else. Yesterday's message was the tamest I've heard so far.

336 432 0386

I don't hear many people defending racists.

[Lee-Lee]

16. Some random kid you know isn't a valid source

I’m not even sure why your throwing out a KKK number from NC to have to do with a kid you supposedly know in Alabama, but that’s a well known and longstanding phone # of a KKK “group” of about 13 people in NC. What does that do to prove anything other than you could google and find the well known KKK voicemail line?

I posted the well researched and documented link to the ADL website where they document just what and where this cane from.

If you want to believe the random racist kid you say you know instead, knock yourself out.

[sarah FAILIN]

21. You haven't talked to him.

He is a much more convincing racist than you are whatever you are saying you are.

[Lee-Lee]

8. No, the circle game is not a white power symbol. What BS

This is absurd. The circle game has been a thing since I was in high school. And for a white the deputies I worked with played it.

The entire claim that the “OK” sigh is a white supremacist symbol came from a 4chan trolling operation where they made it up. That’s it. No evidence was ever seen it was ever actually used by a hate group before 4chan put it out there and none after aside from some wannabes who believed the trolling.

I track hate groups and speech and such online for my job. The entire claim that the OK sign is a white power symbol was made up by trolls from 4chan and aside from that has zero origins in any actual use by hate groups.

But because people jump off without facts or without caring about facts they suspend them? Really?

These officers were suspended for playing a very minor prank because the cities mayor fell for a 4chan prank and isn’t smart enough to even bother looking up to see what it is and, by his own words, didn’t even ask the officers.

I have no idea what these officers believe on racial issues or anything related. But I can tell you that after being suspended for that kind of nonsense on such a weak accusation of racism that has no proof other than a 4chan prank all of them are probably less likely to take real claims of racial bias seriously when they have seen themselves punished based on pretty much no evidence ot basis in reality.

People need to at least do a tiny bit of research before jumping off the handle and doing things like suspending people.

https://www.adl.org/blog/no-the-ok-gesture-is-not-a-hate-symbol

[bettyellen]

11. Ah, the "liberals will make them racists" canard. That's not how it works.

[Lee-Lee]

13. So you think there won't be any effects from a baseless accusation and suspension?

The real world doesn’t work like that.

Just like when actual racist cops do actual racist stuff it makes people in minority communities who are on the receiving end less likely to trust LE based on experience, when have cops who are falsely accused of racism and disciplined based on totally bogus justification it’s going to shade how they view future complaints of racism.

That’s how the world works.

Had the mayor of this town been even a little bit responsible and done even a tiny bit of research into the claims that this was racist then any rational person would have seen there is zero evidence this is a racist symbol.

[bettyellen]

17. I am certain there's more than the photo. And just because the gesture started on 4chan as a joke

Doesn’t mean it’s meaningless- or a crotch joke from 20-30 years ago. Racsist are actually using it as a symbol.
But you go blame people who are trying to protect citizens from racist cops, because it all came from 4chan and......

[bettyellen]

20. Well I've seen actual racists pick it up after the 4Chan thing so I guessed you missed that...

Weird assumption that trolling isn’t a real thing that can be racist - or that it doesn’t matter because it was on the net? Or just defending cops because you were LEO.

And I am neither a liar or stupid- so fucking spare me. Your logic sucks here. Sometimes self professed “experts” are clueless. Cultural catchphrases and symbols are ever evolving, they change and spread via the internet. Doesn’t matter that it started as a joke- it started as a racist joke.

[TheBlackAdder]

12. It's funny how supremacists bust on minority gangs using signs, while they have their own gang sign.

[Lee-Lee]

15. They do, but this isn't one of them.

[CakeGrrl]

22. It isn't?

Link to tweet

[Floyd R. Turbo]

19. When I was a kid, many eons ago, it was called "caught your eye".