Prison guard gets one-day suspension after joking about lynching Obama

A Wisconsin prison suspended one of its guards for a day after he posted a “joke” on Facebook about lynching President Obama.

Collin Visser posted a photo in December of Obama Christmas tree ornaments with the caption, “Look guys. Obama Christmas ornaments. Suddenly it’s legal to hang a black man from a tree again!” Even worse, he made the statement in a Facebook comment on an Iowa newspaper’s story about a Black Lives Matter protest.

Visser was punished in January with a one-day suspension and training by the Office of Diversity and Employment services, according to the Wisconsin State Journal, which wrote about the case Monday. An investigation found that he had violated work rules about harassment and exercising good judgment.

The guard, who works at the Dodge Correctional Institute in Waupun, in central Wisconsin, told investigators in a written statement that he’s not a racist. “I meant it as a joke,” Visser said. “When I looked back at it, I realized that it was stupid and I deleted it.”

According to his supervisors, the punishment was appropriate. Visser received “a level of discipline commensurate with the actions of the employee,” a department of corrections spokesperson told the State Journal.

Department officials were reluctant to discuss his punishment—the newspaper had to submit multiple freedom of information requests across several months in order to get the details.