RantCrush Top 5: August 4, 2017

Wayne Welsh, an assistant police chief in Estherwood, Louisiana, has resigned after sharing a racist meme on Facebook. The image is a drawing of a mother pushing her young daughter’s head under water in a bathtub, followed by the text, “When your daughter’s first crush is a little Negro boy.” After posting the image, Welsh faced swift public outrage and later took down the post.

Cops: “You shouldn’t fear us if you haven’t done anything wrong.”

Also cops: pic.twitter.com/3Ie84hhEcg

— Black Aziz Ansari 👏 (@Freeyourmindkid) August 1, 2017

But he did attempt to defend his actions. He wrote in a Facebook status that it’s not against the law to share “stuff” on Facebook. But that didn’t appear to matter:

oh

okay then wayne pic.twitter.com/pdoe7hbaFE

— John Cullen 💬‏ (@nellucnhoj) August 1, 2017

Police Chief Ernest Villejoin apologized for Welsh and said that his views don’t reflect the opinions of the police department. But many people pointed out that Welsh’s social media pages contain racist posts as well, and that there could be a larger cultural problem in the police department.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.