A D.C. firefighter was placed on administrative duty after he posted inflammatory comments on Facebook yesterday in response to the fatal police-involved shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Norman Brooks told Fox 5, which first reported his comments, that his posts were simply a reaction to horrific events that “are starting to affect me, my family, and my friends.”
Brooks’ comments, which have since been deleted, speak to how he believes “crooked racist cops” are getting away with murder and “shouldn’t feel safe walking the streets.”
Here is one post via Fox 5.
“Bottom Line:
“These racist [expletive] cops who are murder our people need to start turning up the same way… they shouldn’t feel safe walking the streets and neither should their supporters. Protesting is a lost cause and it makes us all look like a bunch a [derogatory term]. These evil [expletives] don’t have any compassion. They are gonna let them PIGS go free and probably start a gofundme and make em millionaires…….
“Its time to stop praying, stop protesting, start buying guns, and start protecting ourselves from these crooked [expletive] racist cops. If you are a cop and are not in support of these people then its about time to start turning these type a [expletives] in or at least givin out some addresses so we the people can handle em.
“End of rant (Please share)”
In another post, Brooks wrote that ‘those pigs” in Baton Rouge “deserve nothing short of a bullet in their heads,” according to Fox.
In an interview with the network, Brooks said that he wanted to clear up some things that people may have misconstrued. He is not promoting violence against good people, police officers or others, he said. “I encourage that you defend yourself against someone who is doing harm against you.”
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards announced yesterday that the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division will investigate Sterling’s death. The 37-year-old man, who was shot outside of a convenience store early Tuesday morning in Baton Rouge, is the 558th person killed by police in the U.S. in 2016, according to The Guardian’s The Counted. Philando Castile of Minnesota, whose girlfriend live-streamed on Facebook the aftermath of his death at the hands of police last night, is the latest on the list.
In a statement obtained by Fox, D.C. Fire and EMS spokesperson Doug Buchanan said that Brooks, who has been in the department since 2007, will remain on administrative duty while the incident is being investigated by law enforcement and the D.C. fire department.
In response, Brooks said that he hasn’t done anything wrong or broken any laws. “I acted on my freedom of speech,” said Brooks, who works at Engine 23 in Foggy Bottom on the campus of George Washington University. “I’m not wishing death upon anyone. All I’m saying is that if a person off the street commits a crime, they’re punished for it. These people are not being punished. I don’t wish any harm on any innocent people or anyone in that instance.”
