A former Kentucky police officer, who was under internal investigation for over a year for racist comments, once called a Black woman “a wild animal that needs put down” on Facebook, police records show. But his punishment was only a slap on the wrist.
Brian Smith, who resigned from the Louisville Metro Police department in April, was suspended for a month earlier this year after it was discovered that he had violated the department’s social media policy, WDRB News reports.
An internal investigation was launched after a December 2016 complaint of Smith’s “deep-seated bias against minority communities.” The complaint included a post of Smith calling a Black girl an animal while linking to an article about a Black teen allegedly fighting another girl.
“ANIMAL! Nothing but a wild animal that needs put down,” he wrote on Facebook in response. “There I said it.”
Smith also suggested that singer Madonna should be beaten for studying the Koran, adding “that’s a lesson in Muslin (sic) behavior for her.”
Documents show that Police Chief Steve Conrad apparently planned to fire Smith for Facebook posts that “advocate violence against others” and “fostered mistrust of the police.” But Conrad only gave Smith a 30-day suspension without pay instead.
Smith was previously suspended in 2009 for having sent inappropriate text messages to a minor who was his ex-girlfriend’s daughter.
He resigned in April.