Wayne Welsh: Louisiana Cop Resigns After Posting Racist Facebook Memes, His Boss Says He Meant No Offense
A Louisiana assistant police chief has resigned after posting racist memes on Facebook, The Sacramento Bee is reporting.
Wayne Welsh was, until this week, an assistant police chief in Estherwood, Louisiana, a tiny little town in the far southwestern portion of the state. Unfortunately for him, when you’re in a position of power, your social media posts are going to be noticed. What’s more, even if you delete them, they’re never truly gone, thanks to the power of screenshots.
Welsh found that out the hard way on Monday. Normally, Welsh could be counted on to post things that might make some peoples’ hairs bristle, including support for gun rights, derision for Democrats, and praise for Donald Trump, but his comments couldn’t be considered particularly offensive. But on Sunday, he took things a few steps further, and that ultimately cost him his job.
Specifically, he posted a picture that appears to be a cartoon from the 1950’s showing a mom in period clothes bathing a little girl in a bathtub. The girl’s head is under the water, and depending on how you look at the picture, you might think the mom was holding the girl’s head under the water as if to drown her.
Welsh shared the photo with an offensive, racist caption.
Assistant ?? POLICE ??Chief Wayne Welsh of Louisiana posted this meme on Facebook.???????????
Now he’s the FORMER police chief. ????? pic.twitter.com/23db5fq4Mj
— Weslye Saunders (@Wes_Saunders88) August 3, 2017
By Monday morning, Estherwood City Hall was getting angry phone calls about one of their cops spreading racism on social media. Police Chief Ernest Villejoin was taken completely by surprise.
“I didn’t know anything about it until 10 this morning. A woman called from Houston to tell him about it.”
This wouldn’t be the first racist meme that Welsh had shared as internet sleuths quickly found out. Another post shared by Welsh, which we can’t reproduce here because it contains profanity, showed Muslim women in black burqas in front of a building. It was captioned, “Someone left the trash bags out on the street in front of the store again.”
@tariqnasheed Race soldier Wayne Welsh.
Estherwood Lousiana. He was fired..Officer Welsh though it’d be funny to post some racist stuff pic.twitter.com/obUlenQ3I8
— Truth Seeker (@xfilestrustno1) August 2, 2017
By Monday afternoon, Welsh had doubled down on his posts, rather than apologizing. He posted his defense, which has since been deleted, on the Estherwood City Hall Facebook page.
“Its (sic) not against the. Law if you share stuff on. Facebook. Its (sic). Social media. Internet.”
Then later, on Monday evening, Welsh apologized.
“Well, I posted something on Facebook that made a lot of people mad. Well, I’m sorry for what happen (sic). Ya (sic) have a blessed day.”
Villejoin initially took his employee’s side, saying that he believed Welsh didn’t mean to offend anyone. However, by Tuesday the matter had become too big of a distraction to ignore. On Tuesday night, Villejoin accepted Welsh’s resignation.
Do you believe that Wayne Welsh deserved to be forced to resign for the Facebook memes he posted? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[Featured Image by Natee Meepian/Shutterstock]
