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Police officer draws scrutiny for anti-Islam Facebook post – Metro US

Police officer draws scrutiny for anti-Islam Facebook post

A Boston-area police officer is facing criticism for a Facebook post he shared that seemingly condones bombing Muslims.

Medford police officer Jason Montalbano was facing scrutiny on Wednesdy for a recent Facebook post he shared that depicts an atomic bomb’s mushroom cloud captioned with, “Japan has been at peace with the U.S. since September 2, 1945. It’s time we made peace with Islam,” Fox 25 Boston has reported.

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“You can’t be a neutral officer on the street if you have these ideas about a certain group of people,” Medford Mayor Stephanie M. Burke was quoted by WCVB. “So, it’s not acceptable.”

Montalbano has also drawn the attention of the Washington, D.C.-based Council on Islamic Relations, which has released a message indicating they are concerned over the officer’s social media post, Fox 25 added.

“We try to uphold the utmost of standards with everybody in the public, and we don’t want anybody to think of us as people that are discriminatory to anyone in any way,” Medford police Lt. Paul Covino said to Fox.

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Yusufi Vali, executive director of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, said to WCVB that hostility toward Muslims has been greater since the presidential election cycle began.

“I’m hearing a lot more of that kind of stuff from community members than at other times, and unfortunately, I think a lot of it has to do with the political season,” Vali said to WCVB. “I think it’s really critical not to judge the police department by what one or a few people do, in the same way Islam or Muslims should not be judged by what a very small group of minorities do.”

The Medford police department’s social media policy stated that officers should conduct themselves online with behavior that is beyond reproach, Fox added.