Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard was alerted on his Facebook page over the weekend about shirts for sale on Amazon that said "F" the police.
Sheriff Bouchard asked his Facebook friends if this was appropriate.
By Monday, Amazon took the shirts down and much to his surprise, Facebook took his posts down.
He is asking what is free speech and what is hate. It turns out Facebook has entire pages dedicated to "F" the police.
7 Action News contacted Facebook asking what is appropriate, but we have not gotten a reply.
Sheriff Bouchard is the Vice President of Government Affairs for the Major County Sheriff's Association. The association released the following statement:
"We have seen an uptick in targeted killings and anti-police rhetoric over the past few months and it has come to the attention of the MCSA that Amazon and Facebook are not only promoting criminal behavior but are also profiting from it.
Social media has become a main source of propaganda for the anti- law enforcement movement and it is disgusting that Facebook continues to permit “fuck the police” pages and groups for public consumption. The MCSA condemns the obscene caricatures depicting the assassination of law enforcement officials and calls upon Facebook to immediately remove the content.
A call for action was posted on Facebook asking people to share their concerns with Amazon and Facebook responded by systemically removing all such posts and all sharing of the message from thousands of people. Yet, pages entitled “fuck the police” are left online.
Additionally, it was recently brought to the MCSA’s attention that Amazon was selling “Fuck the Police” t-shirts as well as other anti-police merchandise. It is unimaginable that a retailer would promote and profit off of the bigoted targeting of an individual based on their race, religion, disability or sexual preference, yet “fuck the police” merchandise remains on their website.
Social media and online retail stores must stand up and stop promoting the dangerous anti-police rhetoric. In the past nine months, 86 officers have died in the line of duty. Eighty-six families will never see their husband, wife, sister, brother, mother, or father again. MCSA calls upon Facebook and Amazon to support the men and women who risk their lives every day for the safety of their communities."
