Trump-Obama post from sheriff's office sparks outrage
CHICAGO -- An Illinois sheriff defended his office’s use of a social media post involving President Trump and former President Obama after some criticized it and similar posts as racist, CBS Chicago reports.
The Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office Facebook and Twitter feeds both feature a picture of Mr. Obama having climbed up the outside of Trump Tower, looking into Mr. Trump’s home while holding binoculars. Mr. Trump is inside the home.
The image is part of a campaign to remind people to lock up by 9 p.m. and report suspicious activity to police. Kankakee County Sheriff Mike Downey said there’s been a rash of home and car burglaries and that the campaign -- which features the hashtag #9PMRoutine -- is supposed to be a catchy way of reminding people to lock up at night.
On Facebook, some comments criticize the sheriff’s office for being racist, unprofessional, offensive and inappropriate. Others say they find it funny.
Downey said the post featuring Mr. Obama and Mr. Trump wasn’t designed to do anything but grab attention.
“That’s all the news is reporting. We’re not on the national level when it comes to politics. We’re more on getting people’s attention to lock their doors,” he said.
On Facebook, one person commented that the post reinforces negative stereotypes by putting out the image of a black man ready to break into a white man’s home, but Downey said it was nothing of the sort.
“If you look at the history of our memes, there’s a lot of those memes that are related to current events and celebrities and things like that,” Downey said. “So, no, that’s ridiculous.”
Other posts featuring the #9PMRoutine hashtag include a picture of boxer Mike Tyson, with the caption “I THOULDA LOCKED MY HOUTH UP LATH NIGHT! THILLY ME! I FORGOT MY #9PMRoutine.”
Others include the hashtag as a clue on the game show “Jeopardy!” and a take on the popular meme of Kermit the Frog sipping tea, with the caption “LOCKING YOUR DOORS & REMOVING YOUR VALUABLES WOULD APPEAR TO BE FAIRLY COMMON SENSE BUT HEY, THAT’S NONE OF MY BUSINESS. I’M JUST BE ACCUSTOMED TO MY #9PMRoutine.”
Downey said his office has been tweeting nightly posts at 9 p.m. to remind people to lock their doors. They try to pick a memorable one or something tied to current events so the message sticks in people’s minds. He said the point he wants to get across, in a catchy way, is that home and car break-ins are crimes of opportunity and people who lock their doors are much less likely to become victims.
The sheriff pointed to Wednesday’s International Women’s Day and how his office tried to inject some humor into the Warrant Wednesday social media posts by including on the “wanted” information the logo of the show “Cops: Bad Girls.”
Downey said his office thought the post of Mr. Obama and Mr. Trump was a humorous take on the president’s unsubstantiated allegation that his predecessor tapped his phones during the 2016 election.
A spokesman for Mr. Obama has denied that the former president had Mr. Trump wiretapped.
