East Palo Alto cop takes heat for Facebook remarks
An East Palo Alto police detective is taking heat in online forums for allegedly posting comments from his Facebook account that advocate shooting Open Carry gun advocates.
Detective Rod Tuason apparently made the remarks in response to a friend’s status update, which joked that gun advocates who carry unloaded weapons in plain view as a political statement should start doing so in places such as Oakland, Richmond and East Palo Alto “and not limit themselves to hoity toity cities.”
“Haha, we had one guy last week try to do it!” Tuason replied, referring to a Redwood City man who strolled into the Mi Pueblo Food Center in East Palo Alto on Jan. 27 with a gun on his hip. “He got proned out and reminded where he was at and that turds will jack him for his gun in a heartbeat!”
After several more comments in the thread, Tuason apparently joked that officers should shoot the advocates, who have made recent headlines throughout the Bay Area for sipping coffee at cafes and performing other everyday acts with visible weapons.
“Sounds like you had someone practicing their 2nd amendment rights last night!” Tuason wrote. “Should’ve pulled the AR out and prone them all out! And if one of them makes a furtive movement … 2 weeks off!!!”
(snip)
Tuason didn’t return a phone message seeking comment Monday. But East Palo Alto police Capt. Carl Estelle said the department’s professional standards division is looking into the Facebook remarks to see if they violate any rules or policies.
“We have to be careful because they’re on his own personal private Web page,” Estelle said. “We have to be careful not to violate his First Amendment rights.”
The department hasn’t taken action against Tuason, and the detective was working in uniform Monday, he said.
Of course he was, and of course they’re not going to do anything to him. It’s just 2nd Amendment advocates here, NBD. They’re not really human, after all.
Now, if he would have used anti-black racial slurs on his F/B page, suggesting that “n*****s” who enter East Palo Alto should be shot on sight, then his First Amendment rights wouldn’t be much of a concern to his superiors right about now. He would be out of uniform and out of job by yesterday.
