Florida police organization head resigns after offering to hire officers facing claims of misconduct

The president of a Florida police organization has resigned from his position with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office over Facebook posts offering to hire officers from other cities who have been charged with assaulting protesters. 

Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said during a Friday press conference that Lt. Bert Gamin, who is also president of a Florida chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, resigned after Ivey informed Gamin that he intended to fire him following an internal investigation of the posts and Gamin’s personnel file.

One of the Facebook posts shared on Saturday to the Brevard County Fraternal Order of Police page read “Hey Buffalo 57…and Atlanta 6…we are hiring in Florida. Lower taxes, no spineless leadership, or dumb mayors rambling on at press conferences… Plus… we got your back!”

The post references an incident in Buffalo, N.Y., in which police were caught on video shoving 75-year-old activist Martin Gugino to the ground. Gugino can be seen in the footage bleeding from his head while police walk by. Two officers were suspended over the incident, and 57 officers resigned from the force’s emergency response team in solidarity.

In Atlanta, six officers are facing felony charges over a video of them dragging a black couple from their car amid protests over the death of George Floyd.

Ivey announced that Gamin was suspended with pay earlier this week pending an internal investigation. 

He told reporters on Friday that the review brought to his attention an incident that occurred 15 years ago “involving an alleged racial overtone” in “comments to one of his subordinates at the time, and they were disrespectful and extremely unprofessional to say the least.” Ivey said Gamin was “spoken to” about the incident, but he was not suspended.

“As a result of the original comments made by Lt. Gamin on Facebook and the disclosure to me of the various items in his personnel file, yesterday afternoon, I made Lt. Gamin and his representative aware that at the conclusion of the internal investigation, I intended to terminate his employment from our agency. As a result of my intent, Lt. Gamin decided to resign from the agency and, as such, is no longer affiliated with the Brevard County Sheriff’s office,” Ivey said.

“While there’s no question that each of us has a First Amendment right to express our opinions and feelings, Lt. Gamin’s comments showed very poor judgment and further brought considerable embarrassment to our agency and other local police departments,” he continued. 

Ivey said he believes Gamin regrets the comments.

“He recognizes that they were not only untimely but they were very distasteful. And I believe that if he could go back and unwind time, we wouldn’t be standing here right now,” he said. 

Protests have broken out across the country over the death of Floyd, a black man who was killed last month after a former Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes during an arrest.