HONOLULU (AP) — A Honolulu police officer has been reassigned to desk duty after a derogatory comment about the Black Lives Matter movement and an apparent threat appeared in a post on his Facebook page.
Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Yu declined to name the officer but said he was a member of the Traffic Division. She said he was reassigned Tuesday after the department learned of the post.
Hawaii News Now reports that the post used an expletive in reference to Black Lives Matter. The post also said, “I’m locked and loaded 24/7.” The page was no longer available on Facebook as of Wednesday.
Marsha Joyner, former president of the Martin Luther King Jr. Coalition, said she saw the post, which she called “offensive and scary” last week.
“This came as a surprise, a disappointment,” Joyner said. “I’m afraid for my sons, my grandsons. . That kind of hate has to be ingrained.”
Alfonso Braggs, president of the Hawaii chapter of the NAACP, acknowledged that there have been inappropriate comments posted online about the movement and about police officers.
“This is a matter where there are a lot of hurt individuals on both sides,” Braggs said. “None of these actions are appropriate, and neither of them do us any justice with respect to trying to resolve this situation.”
Police are investigating to determine whether the officer violated the department’s policies regarding social media or bias-based profiling.