Detroit police officer fired over racially-charged Snapchat

The Detroit Police Department on Monday said that it had fired an officer and begun an investigation into his behavior after he posted a racially-charged Snapchat. 

“He will no longer be a Detroit police officer,” Detroit Police chief James Craig said Monday of officer Sean Bostwick.

{mosads}Bostwick posted a photo of himself right before he began his shift Sunday with the caption, “Another night to Rangel (sic) up these zoo animals,” the Detroit Free Press reports.

Craig told the press on Monday that the officer, Sean Bostwick “expressed remorse” for posting the photo and said it was misinterpreted.

Craig said Bostwick’s explanation “didn’t pass muster.”

Bostwick’s Snapchat post went viral Sunday when former police officer John Bennet shared the post, criticizing it.

Bennett previously co-chaired the department’s discrimination committee and released a report last year that found isolated incidents of discrimination, but no widespread pattern in the department.

The department said that it was notified of Bostwick’s post on Sunday afternoon, and suspended the officer “shortly thereafter.”

Bostwick was recently hired and was serving as a probationary officer. Craig stressed that this meant he never worked without a partner.

In its most recent crime statistics, the FBI reported that Detroit experienced the most violent crime of any large city in America in 2016, showing a 15.7 percent increase from 2015.  

Craig has disputed the FBI’s statistics, according to a previous report from the Free Press, saying it inflated the number of aggravated assaults in Detroit in 2016.