Sheriffs Condemn Social Media Sites Promoting Police Assassinations

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The Major County Sheriff’s Association has condemned social media and business websites that are profiting by promoting anti-police rhetoric and criminal behavior.

The law enforcement group said in a statement that Amazon and Facebook have removed posts of messages shared from “f--k the police” pages, but the pages themselves remain online.

Among the posts deleted was one by Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, the president emeritus of the MCSA and its current vice president of government affairs.

His post condemning the sale of a “F--- the police” t-shirt was removed when Facebook scrubbed its sites of mentions of the controversial image, which depicted a stream of blood running down the front of the shirt.

Amazon has also removed the controversial t-shirt from its website, but there were several similarly named Facebook pages, both public and closed groups, still active Monday. Bouchard questions whether that is free speech or hate speech, and said the MCSA plans to make the promotion of anti-police rhetoric for profit a national issue, according to WXYZ-TV.

In a statement, the MCSA noted that in the past nine months, 86 officers have died in the line of duty.

“Social media and online retail stores must stand up and stop promoting the dangerous anti-police rhetoric,” the law enforcement group said. “Eighty-six families will never see their husband, wife, sister, brother, mother, or father again. MCSA calls upon Facebook and Amazon to support the men and women who risk their lives every day for the safety of their communities.”