Louisiana police officer fired after saying on Facebook that Ocasio-Cortez ‘needs a round’

The Louisiana police officer who suggested in a Facebook post that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) needed to be shot has been fired. 

Gretna Police Department Chief Arthur Lawson announced the move in a press conference on Monday, saying that the department would not tolerate one of its officers “alluding to a violent act” against a sitting congresswomen. 

{mosads}“This incident, we feel, has been an embarrassment to our department,” Lawson said while describing officer Charlie Rispoli’s since-deleted Facebook post. Lawson added that another officer, Angelo Varisco, was terminated after an internal investigation found he “liked” Rispoli’s post. 

Rispoli, who had been a member of the Gretna Police Department since 2005, last week shared a Facebook post that described Ocasio-Cortez as a “vile idiot” who “needs a round.”

“And I don’t mean the kind she used to serve,” Rispoli said, apparently referencing the lawmaker’s past job as a bartender. 

Snopes, a fact-checking website, noted that the publisher frequently shares inflammatory misinformation, and that the story was false. Ocasio-Cortez has never said the U.S. pays soldiers too much. 

Rispoli deleted the post on Friday and took down his Facebook page on Saturday, NOLA.com reported.

Lawson said over the weekend that he did not believe Rispoli’s remarks represented a threat, though he called them “disturbing.”

“I will tell you this: This will not go unchecked,” Lawson said. “I’m not going to take this lightly and this will be dealt with on our end. 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.”

Rispoli was placed on administrative leave before the Gretna Police Department moved to dismiss him and Varisco. Lawson said that both of the officers violated the department’s social media policies. 

“These officers certainly acted in a manner which was unprofessional,” he said. 

Ocasio-Cortez called the post a consequence of President Trump’s rhetoric against her and some of her freshman colleagues, saying that “this is Trump’s goal when he uses targeted language & threatens elected officials who don’t agree with his political agenda.”

“The President is sowing violence. He’s creating an environment where people can get hurt & he claims plausible deniability,” she added. 

Lawson said that Capitol Police told him no criminal charges would be leveled against the officers, CBS affiliate 4WWL noted.