Florissa Fuentes, of the Springfield Police Department, was fired after sharing a photo on Instagram of her niece at a Black Lives Matter protest.
What We Know:
- Fuentes, a police detective in Springfield, Massachusetts, said she was fired after reposting her niece’s photo at a Black Lives Matter protest on Instagram. The post featured two people holding signs. One sign read, “Who do we call when the murderer wears the badge”. The other sign implied that people should shoot back at the police.
- Fuentes, 30, joined the Springfield Police Department in July 2019 and was promoted to detective in the spring.
- On Saturday, Fuentes said that she shared the post to support her niece and the movement as a whole, not as an endorsement of violence against the police. But after she shared the post as an Instagram story one-night last month, Fuentes woke up to messages from colleagues warning her about possible consequences.
- “You have a lot of haters. You’re going to get in trouble,” she recalled one co-worker telling her. Her quick advancement through the ranks, after she asked for a different shift so she could care for her children, drew some criticism from fellow officers, she said.
- “I was initially confused, but then I realized they thought I was being anti-cop. I wasn’t,” Fuentes said. “I was just supporting my niece’s activism. I had no malicious intent, and I wouldn’t put a target on my own back. I’m out there on the streets every day like everyone else.”
- She deleted the Instagram post the next morning and issued an apology to her co-workers in a private Facebook group. “I did not share the photo with any malicious intent and I should have thought about how others might perceive it,” she wrote. “I apologize to all of those who I have offended. I am not anti-cop. I wear my badge proudly and have committed my life and career to being a police officer.”
- Some colleagues showed their support to Fuentes, but many more criticized her apology post. Fuentes recalled one co-worker asked her to “please stay as far away from me as you can,” adding that Fuentes was “either too dangerous or too stupid to safely associate with”. That comment received 17 likes, and Fuentes then deleted the apology from the Facebook group.
- Fuentes said she met with supervisors at the department, including the commissioner Cheryl Clapprood who helped to promote Fuentes to detective. Fuentes said they expressed disappointment at the Instagram post but understood that she regretted sharing it.
- Despite having to deal with a hostile workplace with colleagues who were shunning her after sharing their criticisms in the Facebook group, Fuentes thought it was behind her until she heard that the mayor, Domenic Sarno, was upset about the post.
- Fuentes received a call on June 19th from Joseph Gentile, national vice president of the National Association of Government Employees which represents police officers and other public employees. Gentile told her she could resign or be fired and that she needed to make a decision that day. Hours later, she turned in her badge and gun after being fired.
- Sarno told Western Mass News that Fuentes’ post violated the city’s social media policy because it featured “derogatory comments”. Commissioner Clapprood did not release a statement but confirmed the firing to The Republican, a Springfield newspaper, saying the termination was her decision.
- A fellow Springfield officer, who chose to remain anonymous, told MassLive, a local news organization, that there are other officers who are also in support of the Black Lives Matter movement but are too afraid to speak out. “There’s a lot of officers who are afraid to speak up about this issue and don’t want to be targeted as well. Although we agree punishment should have happened… she owned up to it immediately and said sorry and she was sincere. There are officers who lied on police reports and have done worse things, yet they remain employed.”
Fuentes, a single mother of three children, two of whom are Black, said being without a job has been difficult with “three mouths to feed,” and that she would return to work at the department if given the opportunity. “I took this job to give back to the community — to the city that raised me,” she said. “If I could get my job back, I would take it in a heartbeat.”
