Cop Takes Selfie In Boxers And Is Fired – But Not For The Reason You Think

by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton | June 11, 2016 3:05 pm

I don’t blame[1] this North Charleston police officer for suing over this. During his vacation, the Emanuel AME shooting went down. Then came the subsequent banning of the Confederate flag. On officer Shannon Dildine’s vacation, he took a selfie of himself in swim trunks that had the Confederate flag on them. He posted the pic under an alias on a private Facebook page to settle a dispute between two friends. It was probably a ha ha… he had no idea of the carnage that had just occurred five days previously or the politically charged storm that swirled afterwards. Dildine says in a meeting the day after the photo was posted, he met with Capt. Stephens, Deputy Chief Deckard, Deputy Chief Reggie Burgess and Julie Elmore, the Special Assistant to the Mayor. He says in that discussion they talked about a photo Burgess posted a week earlier with members of the Black Lives Matter movement that had been published in a newspaper. He was then fired a week later citing the Confederate flag photo. Dildine says he was terminated because he is white.

Confederate[2]

From Young Conservatives:

A former North Charleston police officer says he was fired for being white after he posted a photo of himself in nothing but Confederate Flag boxers on his Facebook page.

Shannon Dildine posted the photo five days after the racially motivated mass shooting at Emanuel AME.

In a federal lawsuit, Dildine claims he was on vacation at the time of the Emanuel AME shooting and of the ensuing debate over the flag, but did not know there were pictures of the accused shooter Dylann Roof draped in the Confederate Flag.

Dildine says in the filing he was also unaware North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey had voiced his support of removing the Confederate Flag from Statehouse grounds.

Instead, Dildine claims he posted the picture “to diffuse a debate that two of his Facebook friends were having over the Confederate flag issue. Plaintiff posted the picture under an alias name on his private Facebook account and did not in any way associate himself or the shorts with the City of North Charleston.”

Dildine says in a meeting the day after the photo was posted, he met with Capt.

He says in that discussion they talked about a photo Burgess posted a week earlier with members of the Black Lives Matter movement that had been published in a newspaper.

A week later, Dildine was fired and officials told him it was because of the Confederate Flag underwear picture.

Confederate1[3]

Dildine is arguing that his termination while Deputy Chief Burgess’ employment continued is evidence of discrimination in the department and in the city’s government. Dildine says his termination was an instance of racial discrimination. “Being born and raised in the Southern United States, (Dildine) did not believe the Confederate flag was a symbol of hate. Instead, he believed it symbolized opposition to bigger or intrusive government,” the filing reads. His attorney, Chris Potts, says Dildine is not looking for city officials to fire Burgess. He only wanted to use it as a comparison between his actions and Burgess’. Dildine says he doesn’t think Burgess was ever reprimanded for the publicly shared photo of him with Black Lives Matter. “When other races engage in similar conduct [as posting a politically driven picture on private social media pages], minorities are treated better than Caucasians,” Potts said. He said this is a First Amendment case and that Dildine’s posts on Facebook made on a page using an alias during his personal time should not weigh on his employment. Potts said Dildins’ freedom of speech is not attached to his role as a police officer. Still, Potts says he wasn’t sure if Dildine’s personal page made any mention of him being a police officer. This whole thing is ridiculous as the officer did nothing wrong. He was fired out of sheer political correctness here. I think he stands an excellent chance of winning his lawsuit.

Endnotes:
  1. I don’t blame: http://www.youngcons.com/police-officer-takes-photo-in-confederate-flag-boxers-promptly-fired/
  2. [Image]: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Confederate.jpg
  3. [Image]: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Confederate1-e1465670768310.jpg

Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/political-correctness/cop-takes-selfie-boxers-fired-not-reason-think/