When Milwaukee Bucks rookie Sterling Brown was tased and arrested for no reason last winter, it sparked plenty of justified outrage in just about every affected circle, including NBA players and Milwaukee residents.One group not outraged: the arresting officers themselves, as evidenced by social media postings of one officer Erik Andrade, who took to Facebook both in the aftermath and in the months after the arrest to share some offensive posts. Now an officer has been fired for violating social media policy, and while the identity hasn’t been confirmed, it seems likely to be Andrade.Via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
One of the Milwaukee police officers involved in the arrest of Bucks player Sterling Brown has been fired, Police Chief Alfonso Morales said Thursday.
The officer was fired for violating social media policy — not for his conduct the night Brown was tased and arrested.
Morales did not name the fired officer, but the officer who came under internal affairs investigation for social media posts was Erik Andrade.
During a speech at Marquette University, Morales added that he was concerned about the officer’s ability to testify in the future.
Ignoring the fact that based on the report, Morales was more concerned about a future credibility issue in court than with Andrade’s actions, at least someone is facing real consequences. Here are some of the social posts in question, via court filings and the Journal Sentinel:
The “comedy tour” continued later in the year, after J.R. Smith’s costly mistake during Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Sure, that’s definitely something to joke about! Clearly Andrade had learned a lesson from the experience!Brown is understandably suing the city, and the suit cited Andrade’s posts specifically:
Brown filed a federal civil rights suit in June against the Milwaukee Police Department and the city, claiming wrongful arrest and excessive force during an altercation outside a Walgreens store.
Milwaukee police violated his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights during his arrest and tasing about 2 a.m. Jan. 26, the suit said. And although two sergeants and an officer received suspensions, their discipline was not for the “unlawful and race-based arrest and detention” of Brown or the excessive force used against him, according to the suit.
In his lawsuit, Brown cited Facebook posts and “racist memes” shared by Andrade.
That social media posts, as bad as these are, are considered worse than the actions that actually led to the “arrest” is really kind of worrying in itself, but at least someone got fired.
