Louisiana Police Force Fires Cop for Facebook Post Suggesting AOC Should Be Shot

Last week, a cop in Gretna, Louisiana posted a fake news article about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Facebook with the caption, “This vile idiot needs a round … and I don’t mean the kind she used to serve.” Turns out that was maaaaybe a mistake, as he just got fired.

According to local CBS affiliate WWL-TV, Officer Charlie Rispoli was kicked off the Gretna police force over the weekend, along with fellow officer Angelo Varisco, who liked the aforementioned post. Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson told reporters on Friday that the department was investigating and noted that he was “not going to take this lightly.” It appears he did not.

“This incident, we feel, has been an embarrassment to our department,” Lawson told reporters on Monday. “These officers certainly acted in a manner which was unprofessional.” It’s also illegal, considering threatening a government official is a felony under federal law, though Lawson said that he did not expect the U.S. Capitol Police to pursue legal action against Rispoli.

Rispoli’s post, which he put up on Thursday and apparently deleted by Friday, included a link to a “satirical” article from fake news website Taters Gonna Tate titled “Ocasio-Cortez On the Budget: ‘We Pay Soldiers Too Much,’” though it seems Rispoli took it seriously. “I think he just got caught up in the heat of the moment. I mean, this wasn’t even a real news article,” Lawson told reporters.

Note that AOC gets a lot of death threats, most of which I imagine are made in “the heat of the moment,” not to mention the fact that she and the other three freshmen women of color in the House of Representatives have their safety threatened regularly by the President of the United States himself, also probably done in “the heat of the moment.” But no matter! Now Rispoli is out of a job, though I’m sure Border Patrol is hiring.