CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – Lowcountry police agencies had to take measures after Facebook posts celebrating Black History Month received hundreds of racist comments.
North Charleston Police Department and Goose Creek Police Department made posts, acknowledging the racist comments under the original posts highlighting Black employees.
Summerville Police Department also posted a press release regarding a similar issue they faced in which they replied with “shame on the detestable few who want to cast shade with their hateful rhetoric.”
The North Charleston Police Department said they were advised by their legal team to disable comments on their page as of right now but left the original posts up. As for Goose Creek Police Department, they did take down the posts, as well as disabled comments.
Some of the comments that were left under the original posts will not be shown because of their disturbing and offensive language and images.
Pastor Thomas Dixon, who is also a social justice advocate in the Lowcountry, said comments he saw were “insane.”
“At that time, I think there were like 300 comments or something like that. Many of which had these disgusting, racist memes attached to them. Of course, my first thought was ‘I wonder if my police department knows that,’ because I know that’s not indicative of what my community, what my police force, what my police chief believes in,” Dixon said.
However, he credits how the North Charleston Police Department handled the situation by not taking down the posts but rather disabling future comments and is further disappointed to not see the same be done for the Goose Creek Police Department’s Facebook page.
“Black people, just like all of our ethnicities in all of our major cities, we’re all tax-payers too. Why shouldn’t our police department celebrate our culture the same way our police department everyone else’s color,” Dixon said.
North Charleson Associate Chief of Police, Angela Johnson, said the hurtful comments did not line up with their goals as an agency and will continue to celebrate Black History Month.
“It was so hurtful. What hurts the most is it was under one of our employee’s posts. In order to stop the hurt, not only to us but to the community, we just decided to pull it off. It’s just disappointing that people still feel that way and feel like they have to make something positive into something negative,” Johnson said.
Johnson also said after looking through the analytics on Facebook, they saw the majority of the accounts that did comment were not from the Charleston area.
Goose Creek Police Chief, LJ Roscoe, said they deleted the posts altogether and said the decision was made for the wellbeing of their staff and families.
In a statement, she said, “As a police department, and the city as a whole, we value all of our employees. We appreciate and celebrate the differences that each person brings to the table and we embrace and acknowledge that without the differences we would not learn or grow.”
Summerville Deputy Chief of Police, Chris Hirsch, shared their response to the numerous racist posts.
“Many of the racist posts have been hidden due to them violating Facebook rules. The majority of our comments received are positive. The Chief’s message we posted on our Facebook page is clear. We are committed to humanizing the badge and breaking down barriers by recognizing our police officers,” Hirsch said.
When asked how this has compared to previous years during Black History Month he said he was unsure because he doesn’t think they posted anything last year.
Dixon said to move beyond racism, it needs to be uncovered.
“Until we all step up and begin to actually address this, not hide it, not delete the post, but address it. Then it’s going to continue, that’s how bullies work. If we as a collective, all of the good people, the right-minded people of the United States, stand up, stick up and speak up against that, the bullies will stop the bullying the way they’re doing now.”
Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.
This article was originally published by a www.live5news.com . Read the Original article here. .