North Charleston Police Officer Fired After Posting Facebook Photo Wearing Only Confederate Flag Underwear
A North Charleston, South Carolina, police sergeant has been removed from duty after posing in nothing but his Confederate flag boxers and posting the picture to his Facebook page.
In announcing the firing of veteran officer Shannon Dildine, Chief Eddie Driggers assailed his actions as "unacceptable." In the formal termination letter sent to Dildine, the chief went on to add, "Your posting in this manner led to you being publicly identified as a North Charleston Police Officer and associated both you and the department with an image that symbolizes hate and oppression to a significant portion of citizens we are sworn to serve."
Dildine thus becomes the second North Charleston officer to be fired over the last several months after being observed in an act superiors charge breaks all department protocol.
Just two months ago, officer Michael Slager was fired and criminally charged in the killing of 50-year-old Walter Scott after he was captured on video tape opening fire on the unarmed man in a neighborhood park.
Slager has since been indicted on murder charges and is now being held without bail at the North Charleston Jail. The 33-year-old veteran officer faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted.
In the video, Scott can clearly be seen running away, but Slager still fires at least eight shots at him and later claimed to authorities he only did so in self-defense.
Several media outlets are now reporting his segregated cell is adjacent to that of Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old man charged in the recent shooting deaths of nine African American bible study parishioners inside the Emmanuel AME Church.
In a since discovered manifesto believed to be written by him, Roof lamented he had "no choice" but to target black victims.
"I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight," he wrote. "We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the Internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me."
Driggers added Dildine will now have 10 days to appeal the department's decision.
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