Posted on 07/17/2018 2:04:18 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
Four Alabama police officers have been suspended without pay after the city's mayor says they made a hand gesture some associate with white supremacist movements in an official photo.
Local news station ABC 33 reports that four officers in the Jasper Police Department were suspended on Tuesday after a photo appeared in the Daily Mountain Eagle showing the four men making an "OK" gesture with their hands, which some say is meant to look like the letters "WP" for "white power."
"That's contradictory to how we run our city. That's not our mindset. That's not the way we do things and they used poor judgement," Jasper Mayor David O'Mary told ABC, adding that the concern was first raised by citizens.
Others say the symbol is a reference to the child's prank known as the "circle game," which tricks victims into looking down at a circular gesture near the prankster's crotch. Local residents identified that game when shown the photo, according to ABC, and O'Mary says he did not ask what the officers meant by the gesture.
"It's a kid game. Going around and hitting everybody when you see it," one town resident told ABC.
The four officers, part of the city's drug enforcement task force, will be suspended for two weeks without pay. O'Mary defended his decision to the news station by reporting that two senior African-American officers on the city's police force spoke with him after it was made, saying they agreed with the suspensions.
"We talked to two senior African-American law enforcement officers that are on the City of Jasper's payroll and they think it's fair and that's a pretty good sounding board."
The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks hate groups and hate speech, has said that the "OK" gesture is not necessarily linked to white supremacist movements.
Yea right, we just had a 13 year old girl decapitated in a small rural town here in Alabama, along with her cartel grandmother being stabbed to death by other cartel members.
This is absolutely ridiculous. Jasper’s mayor is a freaking moron.
In his case I would interpret that as “I need a joint”.
The Obama salute.
President Trump uses that hand jester all the time.
I understand. But these redneck yokels earning $12.50 an hour are NOT the answer for that problem.
The governor needs to mobilize the State National Guard and regain control against our enemy illegal aliens.
First Doug Jones; now this in Jasper. Is AL lost?
Lol.
Great idea to take photos of themselves for undercover cops.
Consequential Outrage - The #1 minority privilege.
There is also a bad meth problem and most of those offenders are white lower class. just look at the local county inmate roster. https://www.jacksoncountysheriffal.org/roster.php
If you stand with your hands at your sides, there is a natural tendency for your thumb and forefinger to come together and form a circle.
In some parts of the world it is that.
Mayor needs to catch hell for this. Absurd!
I have been a white man for 61 years now, and I have never heard of the “OK sign” having anything to do with anything racial. Yes, I’ve heard of the circle game, and I know the gesture is considered obscene in some Latin American countries. Frankly, I would not accept this without a fight. Trump makes that gesture almost automatically. It isn’t racist. We mustn’t lose control of the language.
Before I saw the photo, I was incensed, but that is definitely not an “ok” sign, which is always used chest level or above, and is NOT used upside down. I don’t know anything about some stupid game, but why would grown men be playing a stupid game like that? I don’t know if they meant it to be a white power sign, but something’s not right.
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