A Chicago police lieutenant retired from the department just weeks before the Civilian Office of Police Accountability exposed him for his mess: racist Facebook posts, says a report from the Chicago Tribune. The COPA report concluded he violated the department policy and was unfit to serve. It seems he foresaw the consequences and took his exit early.
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Lt. John Cannon had worked for the Chicago Police Department for 24 years, receiving up to eight service awards, over 100 honorable mentions and 10 department commendations, the report says. However, a slew of racist, sexist, homophobic and xenophobic Facebook posts brought his glory to an end. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
The report says his posts were under the alias “Samuel Hipster.” Then, someone found out Cannon was running the account and submitted a complaint to COPA. The agency then interviewed Cannon and he admitted the Hipster account was his and that he intended for the account to be “jestful.”
Check out what his “humorous” posts consisted of from the Chicago Tribune:
COPA determined that most of the 19 allegations against Cannon were sustained, the report said. Some of the posts he shared included a meme depicting former President Barack Obama wearing a turban with the words, “Obama is ISIS.”
Another post Cannon shared included the comment, “Welcome to peasantry, equal not good enough huh” and a picture with the words, “White privilege is a myth perpetuated by those who hate white people,” the report said.
Another post shared by Cannon included side-by-side images of a young man in a red “MAGA” hat and a young person in drag with the text “LIBERAL LOGIC: Kid in MAGA hat, offensive. Kid in drag, BRAVE!”
I’ll tell you what. These posts might make a racist Trump-lover chuckle. But the posts were offensive and concerning coming from a man who has vowed to serve the city of Chicago, with a 32 percent Black population. COPA’s report found Cannon’s social media behavior discredited the department and undermined their goal to build community support.
“Through his use of social media, Lt. Cannon has demonstrated that he is unable to treat all the citizens of Chicago with fairness and equity. His misconduct is particularly egregious for a high-ranking supervisor with 23 years on the force,” the COPA report said, per the Tribune.
How many high ranking officers busted for racist posts is this now? Both leadership and low-ranking officers have been busted for their bigotry. I thought summer 2020 would have taught them no one is immune from being exposed online.
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