The Springfield, Massachusetts, police department is investigating an officer’s Facebook response to Saturday’s deadly Charlottesville, Virginia, attack.
Officer Conrad Lariviere wrote “Hahahaha love this, maybe people shouldn’t block road ways” in response to a story about a man driving his vehicle into a crowd of anti-protesters at a white supremacist rally on Saturday. One woman, Heather Heyer, was killed in the attack and 19 others were injured. Alex Fields Jr. of Ohio has been charged with second-degree murder and various other crimes in connection with the attack.
In a Facebook interview with Masslive.com, Lariviere expressed remorse over a comment that he indicated was taken wrong.
“Never would I want someone to get murdered. I am not a racist and don’t believe in what any of those protesters are doing,” Leriviere told Masslive.
“I’m a good man who made a stupid comment and would just like to be left alone.”
The chances of him being left alone are slim, however, as Springfield Police Commissioner John Barbieri indicated that if the comments did in fact come from an officer with Springfield Police an investigation would be launched, and an internal investigation was opened Sunday.
Leriviere’s comments on the original post have been deleted, but nowadays once something is out there it is nigh impossible to take back. Whether his comments were a mistake or not, Lariviere will have to face his words and their consequences.
H/T the Root