Fox 2 News management spoke with Ethical Society of Police President Heather Taylor this morning saying that they are “aggressively handling” the issue of their reporter, Bobby Hughes, making a sick joke on Facebook about Michael Brown Jr.’s mother and her son’s shooting death.
In a July 22 Facebook post about Lezley McSpadden being invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention, Hughes commented, “She’s going to talk about the new lead diet she’s endorsed. Five servings and you can lose 200 lbs in two years easily.”
On July 26, the Ethical Society of Police, an organization that represents 200 minority police officers, released a statement demanding that Hughes apologize to the community and Brown’s family for his remarks.
“The reference to ‘lead,’ the loss of ‘200 lbs in two years,’ and other words in this statement are a clear reference to Michael Brown being shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson in 2014,” according to the society’s statement.
Many community members are now demanding that the station fire Hughes or face a boycott, Taylor said. Fox 2 managers would not tell Taylor if they plan on dismissing Hughes, she said.
Taylor also called St. Louis Metropolitan Police Chief Sam Dotson on July 28 to see if the police officer Lt. Jerry Foster, who made the initial Facebook post, would be punished.
Dotson told her they have started an internal investigation, she said. Taylor will also send Dotson at least 15 other inappropriate and racist posts on social media that city officers have made.
Source: St. Louis American | Rebecca Rivas
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