New Orleans Police Officer Jason Giroir resigned Tuesday, after he was suspended by the department for calling shooting victim Trayvon Martin a "thug" in an online comment.
Giroir had posted on a WWL-TV article about protests in the Martin case, "Act like a Thug Die like one!"
Giroir resigned shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday after learning that investigators with the department's Public Integrity Bureau (PIB) had sustained misconduct charges against him and that a disciplinary ("pre-termination") hearing was being scheduled.
"From the moment I was informed yesterday afternoon that Jason Giroir admitted to PIB investigators that he did write the offensive comments on the news station's website, I immediately questioned his abilities to continue as a New Orleans police officer," Superintendent Ronal Serpas said in a statement obtained by POLICE Magazine. "My responsibility to the people of New Orleans as well as to the professional officers on this police force demanded I take swift action in this matter."
Superintendent Serpas suspended Giroir indefinitely without pay Monday after hearing that Giroir admitted he posted the remarks. Internal investigators determined that Giroir violated the following NOPD regulations:
Rule 3, Paragraph 1: Professional Conduct, Professionalism
Rule 3, Paragraph 13: Professional Conduct, Social Networking Websites, Facebook, Myspace, Print or Transmitted Media, Etc.
Rule 4, Paragraph 2: Performance of Duty, Instructions from an Authoritative Source to wit Chapter 22.12 (2c)
Giroir, 35, had served with the department since 1999.
By Paul Clinton
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