‘Despicable’ ornaments on sheriff department’s Christmas tree cause uproar in Alabama
An Alabama sheriff’s department was slammed for its online post about Christmas tree decorations that some deemed divisive and offensive.
The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office shared the decorations last week as part of its social media series called “Thug Thursday,” multiple news outlets report. The picture shows a Christmas tree with mug shots attached as ornaments through the use of Photoshop, according to WALA.
Screenshots of the now-deleted post show a caption that read: “We have decorated our Tree with THUGSHOTS to show how many Thugs we have taken off the streets of Mobile this year! We could not have done it without our faithful followers!”
“The thug tree was to show how many people we have arrested by putting them out there (on social media) and having the community sharing that we were looking for those people in which led to an arrest,” said Lori Myles, a sheriff’s office spokesperson, according to AL.com. “It’s a good thing. It’s a good thing in a community that they have taken these career criminals off the streets.”
Not everyone viewed the post the same way, and backlash erupted from several community groups. In a statement shared on Facebook, Robert Clopton, president of the Mobile County chapter of the NAACP, said he respects the sheriff but called the department’s Christmas tree post not “indicative of professional behavior.”
“This is inappropriate, shameful, disrespectful, despicable, disgusting and embarrassing to the citizens of Mobile County,” Clopton said.
Another group, a nonprofit called Faith in Action Alabama, asked that the sheriff’s office start sensitivity training and warned the post had the potential to grow the divide between police and community members.
“To celebrate so crassly the arrest of those who may have allegedly transgressed against society but still are members of society paints a picture ‘once a criminal always a criminal’ and traffics in racist tropes,” the organization said.
Advocates have spoken against publishing mug shots, photos taken at the time of arrest and before a person accused of a crime has gone to court.
Over the summer, the San Francisco Police Department became the first in the country to adopt a policy saying it would not release most mug shots, “as part of an effort to stop spreading negative stereotypes of minorities,” The Associated Press reported.
The word “thug,” used by the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, is sometimes used as an insult against Black people.
Some social media users appeared to defend the Alabama sheriff’s department post, saying it was appropriate to announce that people sought by police were taken into custody.
“Nothing wrong with celebrating getting criminals off the street,” one person commented on the NAACP’s social media page. “On a tree, on a sign, in a newspaper or a Wanted List, the SO should be congratulated on a job well done and if they want to pat themselves on the back, so what!”
The sheriff’s office didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Monday morning. The department said it received threats and decided to take down the original Christmas tree post, WPMI and other news outlets reported.
“There is no post more important than the lives of our deputies and the work they do in our Community,” Myles, the sheriff’s office spokesperson, said, according to WALA. “The death threats, fire to our building and other negative messages were not from our community, however, if this post jeopardizes the relationship between law enforcement and other communities then we felt it best to remove it.”
This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 10:09 AM.
