A white Louisiana police officer, who in a racist Facebook post, said it is “unfortunate” the coronavirus pandemic hadn’t wiped out black people in the United States has been fired.
Steven Aucoin of the Kaplan Police Department was sacked following the conclusion of an investigation into the disturbing comments, officials said. Reacting to a Facebook user who wrote: “Virus that was created to kill all the BLACKS is death,” Aucoin countered in his May 15 racist comment that: “Well it didn’t work” followed by “how unfortunate.”
The Department said disciplinary actions were immediately taken against Aucoin after they were “made aware of the situation.”
RELATED STORIES
“Chief Hardy had the incident looked into and the officer was terminated,” the department said Friday. “Chief Hardy and the Kaplan Police Department would like to apologize for this matter.”
According to a study published in April by ProBublica more blacks, especially those in typically black communities are contracting the virus and dying at a very disturbing rate.
Speaking to the New York Post, Hardy said Aucoin’s behavior was “unbecoming of a police officer or any person for that matter, to make a comment like that.” He added: “I don’t tolerate behavior like that in my department.”
The research from ProPublica reported then that in Milwaukee county, out of the 945 cases, African Americans make up half the numbers. Sadly, blacks also make up 81% of the 27 deaths reported in a county made up of 26% blacks.
These statistics came to bear because Milwaukee is one of the places in the US that has taken pains to track the effect of the virus and includes racial breakdown of infected people. This throws more light on “the disproportionate destruction it is inflicting on black communities nationwide.”
The report further reveals that Michigan’s state population constitutes 14% blacks and African Americans make up 35% of the cases reported and 40% of deaths at the time of publishing the study.
“We know in the U.S. that there are great discrepancies in not only the diagnosis but the treatment that African Americans and other minorities are afforded,” Dr. Ebony Hilton, an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the University of Virginia, told Buzzfeed.
“So, I want to make sure that in this pandemic, that black and brown people are treated in the same way and that these tests are made available in the same pattern as for white people.”
