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The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has opened an investigation into one of its officers who's been accused of sharing racist and bigoted tweets, including one that described Black people as one of "America's biggest problems."
Jacksonville Sheriff Pat Ivey told First Coast News earlier this week that the department was probing social media posts allegedly connected to Sgt. Douglas Howell, a member of the force’s gang investigations unit.
“The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is currently in the midst of an active administrative investigation related to multiple reports of an employee allegedly posting disparaging material on a personal social media account,” Ivey told the outlet. “I have asked that our Internal Affairs Unit look into these allegations. Detectives have begun working in their attempts to verify whether these posts are legitimate and most important, determine whether the individual responsible for the posts may be a JSO employee.”
In the past decade, various social posts allegedly shared by Howell, who is white, included derogatory comments about the LGBTQ+ community and Black and Brown people.
According to NewsJax4, the sergeant, in one instance, tweeted disparaging comments about the Boy and Girl Scouts’ involvement with a local Pride parade.
“This is absolutely infuriating. These people are sick and demented,” the tweet read, per the outlet.
In another post, his account allegedly replied to a story titled “White Mexicans have had a role to play in white supremacy."
”There are different colored Mexicans?? (Inserts Sarcasm),” the tweet read, according to NewsJax4
A third tweet allegedly written by Howell in 2013 claimed that “America’s Three Biggest Problems” were “Marijuana Abuse, Marijuana Abuse, and Black people.”
The sergeant's Twitter account was locked after the posts were publicly addressed by the sheriff's office.
According to NewsJax4, "officers of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office are free to express themselves on social media as long as the content of what they post does not interfere with their work or violate the office’s social media policy." However, “engaging in speech in any form…that ridicules, maligns, disparages, or otherwise expresses bias against any race, any religion, or any protected class of individuals would be a violation of social media policy," per the outlet.
Ivey told NewsJax4 that consequences for tweets could range from suspension to termination pending the internal investigation.
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