Louisiana cop fired after racist Facebook comment about COVID-19 death toll, police say
A Louisiana officer is out of a job after posting what critics say was a racist remark about coronavirus and African Americans.
The Kaplan Police Department confirmed officer Steven Aucoin’s firing in a Facebook post on May 15, saying it was “aware of the situation” and dismissed Aucoin after an investigation into comments the officer made online just hours earlier.
In comments posted under a live stream of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ press conference on the state’s COVID-19 response, the then-officer implied it was “unfortunate” that all black people weren’t killed by the virus, screenshots obtained by McClatchy News show.
Aucoin’s remarks were also captured by other Facebook users, who shared the screenshots online.
“Chief [Joshua] Hardy and the Kaplan Police Department would like to apologize for this matter,” police said in a statement announcing the officer’s termination Friday.
Hardy told local station KLFY News that such behavior isn’t tolerated in his department.
“We’re held to a higher standard than normal civilians, so you got to watch what you do, you got to watch what you say,” he told the news station in an interview. “You can’t just go and post anything you want on social media.”
Aucoin’s comments were seemingly in response to a fellow user who wrote, “virus that was created to kill all the BLACKS is death.” The officer replied, “Well it didn’t work. How unfortunate.”
Early reports have shown that African Americans are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, which, as of Wednesday, has infected over 1.5 million people nationwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. In April, Edwards noted that “slightly more than 70 percent of [coronavirus-related] deaths in Louisiana are African Americans” despite black people accounting for just 32% of the population, census data show.
Local firefighter Joshua Brothers told KLFY he felt Aucoin needed to be reprimanded for violating social media policy but said his remarks may have been taken out of context due to a Facebook algorithm.
“The newest update that Facebook does, it doesn’t put the comments in consecutive order like it used to,” Brothers told the news station. “It’s not a timeline thing. Relevant newer comments might be above. Some comments aren’t listed at all.”
Other screenshots of the exchange reveal Aucoin had made similarly racist remarks earlier, however.
“I can’t wait until the next part of the plan is implemented and they see what’s in store for their kind,” the now-fired officer wrote, according to screenshots shared by a Facebook user. In another comment, the officer asked, “How many times have you been to combat for the rights you think you deserve for leaching off this country?”
Aucoin was previously employed with Kaplan PD for eight months and was back on the force for three months before his firing, local station KATC reported.