A policeman in Gretna, Lousiana made a Facebook post last week suggesting that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) should be shot.
The Times-Picayune reported this weekend that police officer Charlie Rispoli had posted a threatening message about Ocasio-Cortez, who used to work as a bartender, on his Facebook page.
“This vile idiot needs a round…and I don’t mean the kind she used to serve,” Rispoli wrote in a caption above a fake article headlined with “Ocasio-Cortez On the Budget: ‘We Pay Soldiers Too Much'”
The cop seemed livid about the article, even though the site Taters Gonna Tate describes itself as a “satire” website and Ocasio-Cortez has never said that soldiers get paid “too much.”
Gretna city police chief Arthur Lawson told the Times-Picayune that the post, which has since been deleted along with Rispoli’s Facebook page, “will not go unchecked.”
“I’m not going to take this lightly and this will be dealt with on our end,” Lawson said. “It’s not something we want someone that’s affiliated with our department to make these types of statements. That’s not going to happen.”
“Whether you agree or disagree with the message of these elected officials and how frustrated you may or may not get, this certainly is not the type of thing that a public servant should be posting,” he continued.
However, Lawson said that any punishment Rispoli may get for the post will not be made public.
The incident highlights how several members of law enforcement have taken to social media to smear the progressive congresswoman.
Earlier this month, ProPublica exposed a secret Facebook group made up of over 9,000 former and current Border Patrol officials featuring with racist and misogynist memes of not only migrants, but Ocasio-Cortez as well. One image depicted the congresswoman having sex with a migrant, while another portrayed President Donald Trump forcing her to give him oral sex.
