A white Louisiana police officer is out of a job for a racist Facebook post in which he allegedly suggested it was “unfortunate” that the coronavirus pandemic had not killed off black people, officials said.
Kaplan Police Officer Steven Aucoin was fired after an investigation into the hateful social media post, department officials announced Friday.
“We are writing this to inform everyone that we were made aware of the situation with the comments on Facebook from Steven Aucoin,” a police statement read. “Chief [Joshua] Hardy had the incident looked into and the officer was terminated. Chief Hardy and the Kaplan Police Department would like to apologize for the matter.”
The department did not detail exactly what Aucoin wrote, but Hardy told KATC the officer insinuated he thought it was “unfortunate” that the ongoing coronavirus outbreak had not killed off all black people.
Hardy confirmed that characterization to The Post when reached for comment Monday, but said he could not recall the post in its entirety.
“I don’t tolerate behavior like that in my department,” Hardy said. “It’s very unbecoming of a police officer, or any person for that matter, to make a comment like that.”
Aucoin previously worked as an officer in Kaplan for eight months before leaving the department for a job in the oil business. He then returned to work as a patrol officer three months ago, Hardy said.
Aucoin’s troubling Facebook comment was made as he argued with another woman on a local news story about the coronavirus. The officer was later fired for violating the department’s social media policy, Hardy said.
“Police officers are held to a higher standard and should not be acting that way,” the chief continued. “But sometimes you really don’t know who a person is until you’re around them for a while.”