Nashville officer suspended over Black Panthers Facebook pic

The police department confirmed to news outlets that Officer Christopher Taylor was decommissioned Monday after he posted a famous photo of Black Panther National Chairman Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, both of whom are shown armed.

A police officer in Nashville, Tennessee has been decommissioned and is now under investigation after posting an inflammatory comment on Facebook in the wake of the officer-involved Philando Castile shooting in Minnesota earlier this week. “I would have done 5”, in an apparent reference to the number of shots in the Minnesota case. A day later, Philando Castile was reportedly shot four times and killed by an officer during a traffic stop in Minnesota.

But later on Thursday night, the department issued another statement announcing that an eight-year veteran of the force, Anthony Venable, had been immediately decommissioned after it discovered Venable had commented on Facebook, “Yeah”.

Chief Anderson says the department is treating the matter “very seriously” and made a decision to take action “regardless” of the original intent.

“I am extremely concerned and disturbed by the videos and the accounts we have heard thus far coming from Baton Rouge and Falcon Heights”, Anderson said, according to the Tennesseean. According to the Metro police website, he was named the field operations bureau police officer of the year in 2014.

In Memphis, officials said Friday that they have suspended two Memphis Police officers for posting what Interim Director Michael Rallings called a “disturbing image.” on social media. I expect that the U.S. Justice Department will conduct thorough and timely investigations that will provide answers. “It was a disservice to the city of Nashville, it was a disservice to this police department”, Anderson told WKRN, the local ABC affiliate. “He may have disqualified himself to be a police officer”.

On behalf of this police department’s 1,900 employees, almost 1,500 of them sworn officers, I am sincerely grateful for the support of Nashville’s citizens and businesses. Eleven police officers were shot by snipers at a Dallas protest over the shootings of black men earlier this week.