Police officer’s Facebook post sparks investigation
CHADBOURN, N.C. (WECT) – Ricky Soles, a police officer with the Chadbourn Police Department, deleted his Facebook account Monday after many community members called a post he made racist and offensive.
No disciplinary action has been taken at this time, but the police chief and interim town manager said that there is not a policy for social media use by town employees, and that they were working on putting one into place on Monday.
Soles was also involved in an incident three years ago where he and another officer posted videos while on duty that were said to be offensive.
Residents of Chadbourn said that in the wake of the officer involved shooting in Charlotte, they’re upset to see a post like this by someone in their community.
“It’s scary to be honest with you, it’s scary. We’ve got police riding through here every day, and people don’t know what to do, if we should hold our hands up or put their hands down you know. It’s very sad,” said Lena Stephens.
Others said they didn’t see the harm in Soles’s post.
“I don’t see nothing wrong with what he said, everybody does need to take responsibility, stop committing crime. If you don’t break the law you don’t need to worry about the law, everybody has a responsibility whether they step up to it or not,” said Alvin Leggett.Here is the full text of the Facebook post:
You are NOT victims anymore
You are the bad guys now
You have your hand out for more freebies
You won’t take responsibility for yourself
You have a 74% illegitimacy rate
You are 13% of the population but you commit 65% of the crime
You produce nothing
You contribute nothing
You take and just want more
You don’t think the laws should apply to you
You blame others for your own decisions
You don’t try in school
You don’t try at work
You have no concept of personal responsibility
You don’t see the direct connection between your own decisions and the impact on your quality of life
You can’t imagine how hard it is to make it in the world, because you never try
You think you can have quality of life without earning it
You don’t raise your children with any morality
You celebrate violence and misogyny
You defend the inexcusable
You beat your domestic partners
You think you are owed something, when you’re not
At this point you are not victims of the bad guys,
You ARE the bad guys.