Estherwood Assistant Police Chief Wayne Welsh admitted to posting the offensive meme but said he isn’t a racist. (Image courtesy of Facebook).
An assistant police chief in Estherwood, La., has resigned from his position after sharing an outwardly racist and threatening meme on his Facebook page.
Wayne Welsh of the Estherwood Police Department shared a post Sunday, July 30, showing an image of a white woman holding a young child’s head underwater in a bathtub with the caption, “When’s your daughter’s first crush is a little Negro boy.”
The image sparked immediate backlash, as social media users quickly snapped screenshots of the law enforcement officer’s post and shared it across the internet. Local station KATC initially declined to release Welsh’s identity, but internet users managed to snag it before his Facebook page was made private.
Cops: "You shouldn't fear us if you haven't done anything wrong."
Also cops: pic.twitter.com/3Ie84hhEcg
— 🇯🇲BlackðŸ‡ðŸ‡¹Aziz🇳🇬aNANsi🇹🇹 (@Freeyourmindkid) August 1, 2017
Estherwood’s police chief Ernest Villejoin said he was dumbfounded when he saw the offensive post.
“When I found out about it, I couldn’t believe I had to call him,” Villejoin told news station KADN earlier this week. “I called him at work and asked him what the hell is going on?”
“He’d done it,” the police chief added. “He said it and he realized what he had done after he done it and he deleted it — but it was too late.”
Villejoin later confirmed to The Huffington Post that Welsh had stepped down from his position, noting that “the situation had been taken care of.”
The Louisiana man has since issued an apology, yet made it clear he doesn’t believe he did anything to warrant his resignation.
“I just don’t feel like I should have to resign on this because there is not a policy saying I can’t do this on Facebook,” he told KADN. “To me, I’m not racist, and I knew it wasn’t. It was picture that everybody shared and you can get on anybody’s [Facebook] and still see it. It’s still there, but I was wrong for sharing it for being a police officer.”
Welsh also took to his Facebook page to say, “I posted something on Facebook that made a lot of people mad/ Well, I’m sorry for what happen. Ya have a blessed day.”
This isn’t the assistant police chief’s first time posting offensive content, however. A social media user pulled up a post from Welsh’s page earlier this year that made disparaging remarks about Muslims in burqas.
He deleted that one, but this one's still up. Guy's a real shitbag. pic.twitter.com/GiLAPWPhXZ
— Dez (@dezanutes) August 1, 2017
KATC reported that Estherwood’s city council decided this week that it would not address Welsh’s controversial post, arguing that city leaders have no authority over the local police department.
