HADLEY — A post police said was inadvertently placed on the Hadley Police Department’s official Facebook page over the weekend has created a stir.
On Saturday afternoon, an officer with access to the department’s page shared a photo from another Facebook page which questioned the public response to the recent arrest of two African-American men in a Philadelphia Starbucks in comparison to the recent killings of two Florida deputies who were shot while eating at a restaurant. The incident at Starbucks went viral, sparking a national conversation about racial profiling and racial disparities in policing.
“Two guys get kicked outta Starbucks and everyone freaks out. 2 cops just having lunch were assainated [sic] and no one bats an eye…” the post read. The Gazette obtained a copy of the post through a public records request.
The post was shared from a page called “Guardians of The Thin Blue Line,” which describes itself as a page designed to “stand up for our brothers and sisters in blue that are out in their communities protecting and serving everyday.”
The Hadley post was taken down after about 15 minutes, according to a subsequent posting by the department. Later, shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday, the department acknowledged that the post was taken down due to complaints.
“Earlier this afternoon, a non-departmental post was posted to our Facebook page. We were notified of its existence by concerned citizens, and the post was immediately removed,” the department said on its page. “Thank you to those who brought the post to our attention.”
Hadley Police Chief Michael Mason released a statement Sunday about the post, which he confirmed was not authorized and posted to the department’s page by accident.
“The employee was attempting to share a post on their personal Facebook feed and inadvertently shared it to our Official page. The post remained on the page for approximately 10-12 minutes and as soon as the mistake was noticed, the employee who posted it did delete it,” Mason said in the statement. “He immediately reported this issue to me and issued an apology for his mistake.”
Mason concluded his statement saying the department was taking steps to ensure such an action does not happen again and apologized to anyone who was offended by the post.
When notified of the post Monday, Springfield NAACP president Bishop Talbert Swan II called the original post troubling as it makes light of the Starbucks incident and unfairly compares it to another tragic incident.
“I am one who is quite concerned about black men being arrested for sitting in Starbucks as I am about any police officer being assassinated,” Swan said. “I’m equally outraged about both incidents, but you don’t make light of racial profiling simply because you are frustrated about what you perceive as a lack of response to the police incident.”
Swan said the department’s decision to remove the post and express remorse was the appropriate action, but said it was problematic that a police officer would post that on a personal page. That doesn’t mean an officer doesn’t have the right to express their frustration about the Florida killings, Swan said, but comparing it to the Starbucks incident implies that the officer doesn’t think racial profiling is serious.
Reached Monday, Mason said he planned to meet with some residents who saw the post and were offended by it. He explained that while the post was “unprofessional and certainly not department sanctioned” it was not meant to offend anyone and was “borne from that person’s frustrations of the officers being killed.”
“We’re going to have to make a better effort to reach out to those folks who saw that post … and try to mend some fences,” Mason said.
Mason said the officer who shared the post will be submitting a statement to the chief explaining how the incident occurred. He did not publicly identify the officer.
“In speaking with the person, there was absolutely no intent to express any type of opinion other than frustration for police officers being killed,” Mason said.
All the department’s members participate in bias training on an annual basis, according to Mason. The department also has a five-page media relations, public information and social media policy which details the department’s use of social media and outlines the precautions and prohibitions placed on officers’ personal social media activity.
The first rule in the department’s policy regarding department sanctioned use states that personnel representing the department via social media shall “conduct themselves at all times as representatives of the department and, accordingly, shall adhere to all department standards of conduct and observe conventionally accepted protocols and proper decorum.”
Regarding officers’ use of personal social media, the department states that “department personnel are free to express themselves as private citizens on social media sites to the degree that their speech does not impair working relationships of this department for which loyalty and confidentiality are important, impede the performance of duties, impair discipline and harmony among co-workers, or negatively affect the public perception of the department.”
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com. This story was updated April 27 to reflect that the inciting incident happened in a Philadelphia Starbucks.