The American Civil War ended 150 years ago, in 1865, but you wouldn’t know it with the current frenzy whipped against the Confederate flag and all things Confederate. (See “War against the Confederacy: Did Obama sign an executive order outlawing confederate flag?“)
The latest: A police officer of North Charleston, SC, was fired for posting a picture of himself on his personal Facebook page, wearing a pair of Confederate flag boxer shorts.
Shannon Dildine
Elaine O’Flynn reports for the Daily Mail, June 26, 2015, that Shannon Dildine posted the photo on Facebook a few days ago. The pic went viral and was spotted by his bosses at North Charleston police department, who fired him the next day.
Charleston, in South Carolina, is still reeling from the murders of nine black people in a church last week by alleged white supremacist gunman Dylann Roof.
Police Chief Eddie Driggers sent Dildane a letter saying the Facebook photograph meant he was associated with a symbol of ‘hate and oppression’ and made it impossible for him to be an officer in Charleston,The Post and Courier reported. Driggers’ letter says:
“On Tuesday … the City learned that you posted on Facebook a photograph in which you were wearing only a pair of boxer shorts emblazoned with the image of the Confederate flag. Your posting in this manner led to you being publicly identified as a North Charleston Police officer and associated both you and the Department with an image that symbolizes hate and oppression to a significant portion of the citizens we are sworn to serve.”
Dildine can appeal the decision within ten days.
Earlier this week a firefighter in Texas was sacked from his volunteer job after he wrote on Facebook that Roof “needs to be praised for what he has done.”
News of the police officer’s dismissal comes as a monument to Confederacy President Jefferson Davis in Richmond was vandalized. “Black Lives Matter” was spray-painted on the side of the memorial in Monument Avenue, Richmond, as part of a sweeping movement across the US against structures celebrating the Confederacy.
Several retailers, including Walmart and Amazon, have banned products displaying the Confederate flag, although Nazi symbols, and the flags of dictatorships like Cuba and Iran are sold. Graffiti has also been daubed on three statues of Confederate leaders at the University of Texas’ Austin campus, on a memorial in St Louis, Missouri, and in Charleston.
~Éowyn
