Two Police Officers Fired for Facebook Post Saying Ocasio-Cortez ‘Needs a Round’

House candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sits at a progressive fundraiser on August 2, 201
Mario Tama/Getty Images

Two police officers in Louisiana were fired Monday for a social media post suggesting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) should be shot.

Charlie Rispoli, a now-former officer of Gretna City Police Department, wrote on Facebook that Ocasio-Cortez “needs a round” and not “the kind she used to serve.” Accompanying his comments was a false story which included a fabricated quote attributed to the New York Democrat that read: “We pay soldiers too much,” according to NOLA.com. The New Orleans news site reports that Angelo Varisco, who was also fired from the Gretna police force, “liked” the post.

“This incident, we feel, has been an embarrassment to our department,” Gretna police chief Arthur Lawson said in a Monday press conference. “These officers have certainly acted in a manner which was unprofessional, alluding to a violent act be conducted against a sitting U.S. [Congresswoman], a member of our government, we are not going to tolerate that.”

“We still have an open investigation at this time until we get that final information from Facebook,” he added.

According to NOLA.com, Rispoli wrote the post about Ocasio-Cortez on his Facebook page Thursday, and the police department was made aware of it the following evening. Rispoli was placed on administrative leave without pay hours before Lawson notified the media of the pair’s firing.

Lawson also noted his department possesses a “zero-tolerance” social media policy.

Rispoli, a 14 year veteran of the department, as well as Varisco, who had three years under his belt, did not work as patrol officers, said Lawson. The pair did security detail in government buildings, including Gretna City Hall.

Calls for President Donald Trump’s assassination have been a fixture since the real-estate tycoon announced his bid for the White House in June 2015. Hollywood stars such as Johnny Depp and Madonna, as well as Broadway legend Carole Cook, have mused about the president being killed.

In May 2016, comedian Kathy Griffin infamously posed for photos holding a replica of President Trump’s bloody, severed head. Just last month, Bette Midler wrote in a since-deleted tweet that “maybe someone” in the president’s circle “can gently give him a shiv,” a reference to him being stabbed with a knife.

Hollywood stars aren’t the only ones who have incited violence against the Commander-in-Chief; some Democrat lawmakers have as well. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) suggested last June that Trump officials should be harassed in public, citing the administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere. We’ve got to get the children connected to their parents,” Waters told supporters in front of the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles, Californa.

Further, in August 2017, Missouri state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D) posted “I hope Trump is Assassinated” on her Facebook page in response to President Trump’s comments about the deadly Charlottesville, Virginia, rally.

In addition to the president, his supporters have long been a target of verbal and physical attacks. Breitbart News editor-at-large John Nolte has documented 639 acts of violence against Trump supporters, many of which the corporate media either reported sparsely or ignored entirely.

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