Posted on 03/02/2012 5:43:43 PM PST by marktwain
The Arizona police sergeant who posted a picture of an Obama T-shirt riddled with bullet holes on his Facebook page has been suspended and demoted, according to officials.
Pat Shearer, a 25-year veteran of the Peoria Police Department, has been suspended for two weeks without pay and demoted to the rank of officer.
"We expect our employees to exercise sound judgment and not bring discredit upon our police department," Police Chief Roy Minter said in a written statement.
The infamous photo (pictured above) showed a group of young, casually dressed high school students brandishing firearms and holding up a T-Shirt with Shepard Fairey's famous portrait of Obama. Below the image of Obama is the word “HOPE.” The shirt appeared to have numerous bullet holes.
Obama-Hope-Shearer-Officer-Arizona The Secret Service caught wind of the photo and, following protocol, immediately launched an investigation into the matter.
“Any time information such as this is brought to our attention, where an individual or a group expresses unusual direction of interest in one of our protectees, we conduct appropriate follow-up,” Max Milien, a spokesman for the Secret Service, told POLITICO on Friday afternoon.
“This posting falls into that category. We’ll conduct the appropriate follow-up measures on this,” Milien added.
When asked about the intent of the photo, officer Shearer told ABC15 in Phoenix, "I don't think that the shooting of that T-shirt is that big of a deal.” Adding that, “It was more of a political statement. It's not like they were going to go out and shoot the president," he said of the teens.
But the Secret Service investigates all potential threats, even those that appear to have been made in jest.
“Individuals certainly have a right to free speech, but we certainly have a right to speak to individuals to see what their intent is,” said Ed Donovan, another Secret Service spokesman in Washington.
The Secret Service has told Reuters that it’s not pursuing any action against Shearer.
In the past, officer Shearer has risked his life for others, according to the Peoria Police Department. He was honored in 2007 for rescuing a person from a burning car.
Picture at the site.
I guess the union did not come to his defense in this case?
The guy was apparently an a-hole, and the state tried to get rid of him several times during his 20 year employment. He had originally started his career with the state as a civilian cook. In 2001, he was arrested based on claims of a transvestite inmate that the officer had forced him to have oral sex. The officer was tried and acquitted of the charges. He would probably have been reinstated, but was charged by the department on charges of promoting prison contraband, and was eventually fired. The dumb ass had been bringing gifts in to the inmate.
Oh, OBOMA, I read it as OSAMA and wondered what the fuss was about.
Now where was all this outrage when the libtards were praising “Death of a president”?
Hanging Sarah Palin in effigy?
It seems Hussein Soetero’s disciples have a double standard.
Maybe a conservative but was DOUBLE-DIPPING. Collecting Illinois pension and working after his first retirement. How about giving the work to someone who is out of a job.
The lesson is simple - hanging Sarah Palin in effigy is acceptable speech, shooting a t-shirt with a picture of a worthless communist POS is not. What was he thinking?
A different President would have been good enough to make him a captain.
What a sad nation we have become.
Posting a bullet riddled portrait of the POTUS is considered a implied threat to the President . The fact that the idiot in question was STUPID enough to post it on his Facebook page is proof that he is in fact a DUMBSHIT . The fact that he hasn’t been fired is proof that his employers are certain that he is an IDIOT who will F*CK up again & give them cause to fire him.
B.S.
How many killers pre-post images of their victm’s?
How many wife beaters end up beating their wives to death ? The guy was stupid in the extreme since we live in a post Constitutional country .
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