A Louisiana police officer recently made a troubling Facebook post suggesting that New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should be shot.
Charlie Rispoli has served in the Gretna, Louisiana police force for fourteen years, and his recent comments have garnered a fair amount of backlash.
Rispoli shared a satirical article about the congresswoman last week.
The shared article is regarding a fake quote, something Ocasio-Cortez never actually said.
Above the post, Rispoli wrote: “This vile idiot needs a round…and I don’t mean the kind she used to serve.”
His comments are referring to the fact that the Congresswoman used to work as a bartender, though that implication is certainly less chilling than the threat of violence.
Gretna Chief of Police Arthur Lawson called the post ‘disturbing.’
“This will not go unchecked,” he told Nola.com . “I’m not going to take this lightly and this will be dealt with on our end. That’s not going to happen.”
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“It’s not something we want someone that’s affiliated with our department to make these types of statements.”
Rispoli’s Facebook post has since been deleted, though Nola.com was the first to publish a screenshot of the threat.
This violent comment follows a week of unrest regarding President Trump’s comments that Ocasio-Cortez and three other congresswomen of color should “go back where they came from” even though three of them were born in the U.S.
The police chief also asked Rispoli personally why he would make such a statement.
“I spoke to him personally just to try to find out why,” he explains, “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.”
On Monday, Chief Lawson confirmed that Rispoli had been fired over the incident.
Officer Angelo Varisco, a co-worker who ‘liked’ Rispoli’s post, has also been fired according to Lawson.
