Louisiana Police Officer Fired After Suggesting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Should be Shot

Last week, a police officer from Louisiana wrote in a social media post that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a “vile idiot” who “needs a round… and I don’t mean the kind she used to serve

July 23, 2019 - 12:09

Last week, a police officer from Louisiana wrote in a social media post that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a “vile idiot” who “needs a round… and I don’t mean the kind she used to serve.” On Monday, Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson announced that the officer in question — and Officer Angelo Varisco who “liked” the post — had been fired and the incident was “an embarrassment to our department.”

“Whether you agree or disagree with the message of these elected officials and how frustrated you may or may not get, this certainly is not the type of thing that a public servant should be posting,” Lawson told The Times-Picayune-New Orleans Advocate.

charlie-rispoli-aoc-post — Facebook screenshot c/o nola.com

The post had initially been taken down right after. And then the officer’s account, which wasn’t public, was also deactivated. The article that Rispoli — a 14-year veteran of the Police Department — linked to his social media post regarding AOC allegedly saying soldiers are paid too much was proven to be false by Snopes.

“I spoke to him personally just to try to find out why,” Lawson explained. “I just couldn’t understand and I think he just got caught up in the heat of the moment. I mean this wasn’t even a real news article.” Chief Lawson said that Gretna police officers had been trained and made aware of other similar incidents throughout the U.S. where officials had been reprimanded for inappropriate social media posts. “With all of those efforts, something like this still happens,” he said. “And it’s very disturbing. It certainly shows a lack of the officers paying attention to what’s going on in the world around them.”

After the post was revealed, AOC tweeted: “This is Trump’s goal when he uses targeted language & threatens elected officials who don’t agree w/ his political agenda. It’s authoritarian behavior. The President is sowing violence. He’s creating an environment where people can get hurt & he claims plausible deniability.”

This comes a few days after Trump’s tweet directed at four congresswomen of color — known as the “squad” — including AOC saying that they should go back and help fix the broken and crime-infested places from which they came from. All but one was born in the U.S. — although all are U.S. citizens — and AOC was quick to respond by bringing up his sexual assault allegations. Earlier this month, AOC was also mentioned in misogynistic posts in a private Border Patrol Facebook group with 9,500 current and former agents who posted racist and violent comments.

These comments made by the Lousiana police officer are part of a larger disconcerting trend of public elected officials and government officials disrespecting AOC and other congresswomen as a result of Trump’s hateful rhetoric. But AOC continues to prove to us that she’s not backing down.

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