Police department ignites outrage with ‘ridiculous’ Facebook post blaming George Floyd for his own death

The Fall River Police Department in Massachusetts is on the receiving end of a backlash after a post was shared on the department's Facebook page that seemingly blamed George Floyd for his own death, ABC6 reports.

The post, which was shared from another person's account, read, "Chauvin immediately stood and calmly placed his hands behind his back. Imagine where we'd be had George done the same."

After deleting the post, the department claimed the post was meant to be shared to someone's personal account and was mistakenly shared on the the department's page.

"It is with regret that the Fall River Police Department's Facebook page was accessed by personnel who inadvertently re-posted an opinion that was meant for their own personal account," the department said in a statement posed to Facebook. "The posting in no way represents the opinion of the Chief of Police of the Fall River Police Department. We will continue our commitment toward transparency and building relationships with our community."

The statement didn't do much to assuage the anger of some, however.

"The opinion expressed represents the opinion of your personnel. Trying to say, "oh no, that's not the OFFICIAL opinion" just expresses what we all know to be true," someone wrote in the post's comment section. "You've got a public face and a private face, and you'll say one thing to us, and another behind closed doors. You want us to believe the public one is your real face, but character is all about what you do when no one is looking."

"So what you are saying is that you have an officer on your force who believes Chauvin was correct in his actions, which is exactly part of the larger systemic issue of policing," another person commented.

"The culprit should be identified and fired. This is ridiculous. This is completely unacceptable, even if it was on their private page. It speaks to the mindset of your officers," added another person.

After releasing a statement expressing his disappointment in the "unacceptable nature" of the post, Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan said that the matter is being investigated.

"This gentleman will be dealt with appropriately and going forward, maybe there's a lot more work to do to look at people's attitudes in the department," Coogan said.