Just....wow. This is exactly what it sounds like.
From ABC News:
A Florida police sergeant was fired for allegedly bringing Trayvon Martin shooting targets he purchased on the Internet to a firearms training session.
Sgt. Ron King, who had been with the Cape Canaveral Port Authority since January 2011, was fired Thursday, authorities said.
This is just so despicable that words fail.
On April 4, when two fellow cops discovered King intended to use the Trayvon Martin shooting targets in their weapons exercise, they told him “they didn’t think it was appropriate,” said John Walsh, CEO of the Cape Canaveral Port Authority. The next day, he said the officers informed the Port Authority Police Chief, who called in internal affairs.
It's messed up that there are cops out there like Ron King. I don't even really know what to say.
There is a small silver lining here: Ron King was turned in by fellow cops who decided that shooting at targets that look like Trayvon Martin was "inappropriate" and decided they had to say something. In other words, the Blue Wall was broken here. We need more good cops out there with the courage to stand up when bad cops do terrible things like this.
Authorities declined to say whether any of the targets were used.
“We want to apologize to the community and the family of Trayvon Martin and don’t feel that this is tolerable or acceptable in any level. It’s something that we’d never want the Port Authority to be involved in and we truly apologize to the families for the pain that they even had to hear about something like this and had to relive their son’s death again,” [Cape Canaveral Port Authority CEO] Walsh said.
Ron King was
fired. Not put on paid leave, or unpaid leave, or suspension. He was fired. Nobody who can do something like this should ever wear a badge.
Edit: There was a rec-listed diary by noweasels yesterday that has more information about this. Sorry, not sure how I missed that.