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Officer may face discipline for Facebook comments – Metro US

Officer may face discipline for Facebook comments

A Nanaimo Mountie may face disciplinary action after “disturbing” comments were posted on his Facebook page, RCMP spokeswoman Annie Linteau said yesterday.

The officer allegedly wrote: “Night shift and St. Paddy’s Day, can’t wait to drop kick all the drunk idiots”; “Bar watch shift tonight, I’m gonna catch me a ginger” and “How come every chick I arrest lately refuses to put clothes on and they’re the ones you never want to see naked.”

“It’s disturbing, rude, offensive,” Linteau said. “Officers are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner.”

Alfred Hermida, a University of B.C. journalism professor and expert on social media, said that because sharing information on public websites is in its infancy, people are still learning what not to post.

“A lot of what we do online, we sort of assume it’s private,” said Hermida. “But actually this is a very, very public forum.”

Christopher Schneider, a UBC Okanagan sociology professor, said public officials and police officers being kept in check by social media is a good thing.

“This gives more of a sense of transparency,” said Schneider. “It’s a way of maybe catching and weeding out people who we don’t want to be serving the public, like this individual.”