Foster II, a White corrections officer at the Attica Correctional Facility in New York has been suspended without pay pending an internal investigation by the State of New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision after posting a social media offensive meme mocking the mass shooting of Black victims in Buffalo's Tops Friendly Market by 18-year-old White supremacist Payton Gendron.
By H. Nelson Goodson
Hispanic News Network U.S.A.
May 18, 2022
Buffalo, New York - On Tuesday, the State of New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) announced that they have suspended without pay a corrections officer (CO) after a social media offensive meme posted by the alleged CO mocked the deaths of 10 Black victims who were murdered at the Tops Friendly Market in a mass shooting by Payton Gendron, 18, a White supremacist. Gendron surrendered to police and was taken into custody and charged with 1st-degree murder, more charges are pending.
The suspended CO was identified in social media as Gregory C. Foster II, 46, of Orchard Park who works as a corrections officer at the Attica Correctional Facility in the State of New York.
Foster's post showed a photo of the Tops Friendly Market on his Facebook (FB) account named as Greg Foster and read, "Too soon? These should weed out some FB friends." (He added a smiling emoji), the meme with the photo of the Tops Friendly Market read, "Clean up on aisle 3, no wait 4, also on 7, 9, 11 and 12".
The DOCCS on Twitter posted, "This vile posting does not represent the morals and values of the thousands of staff members in the Department. The individual responsible has been suspended without pay and DOCCS will be seeking termination. The Department has engaged the Civil Rights Task Force, which we are members of, for potential criminal prosecution. The Department has also launched an internal investigation to identify and discipline any staff who may have engaged with the posting."
Apparently, some other alleged corrections officers responded with smiling emojis and thumbs up in Foster's post. The DOCCS also confirmed that they are investigating whether other corrections officers engaged in Foster's posting as well.
Some of those FB smiling emojis in Foster's offensive post were placed by the following individuals identified as, Chris Monin, Sarah Lukowski, Lee Al, Brandon Hughson, Ken Tarbox and Ron Crane. Rodney Burns, who is a Lt. Corrections Officer also engaged in the Foster conversation post as well. Most of these individuals are corrections officers too.
11 of the 13 shooting victims are Black, two are White and four were employees at the Tops Friendly Market, according to police.
The 10 deceased victims were identified as:
• Celestine Chaney, 65, of Buffalo
• Roberta A. Drury, 32, of Buffalo
• Andre Mackniel, 53, of Auburn
• Katherine Massey, 72, of Buffalo
• Margus D. Morrison, 52, of Buffalo
• Hayward Patterson, 67, of Buffalo
• Aaron Salter Jr., 55, of Lockport
• Geraldine Chapman Talley, 62, of Buffalo
• Ruth Whitfield, 86, of Buffalo
• Pearl Young, 77, of Buffalo
Those injured with non-life-threatening injuries were identified as:
• Christopher Braden, 55
• Zaire Goodman, 20
• Jennifer Warrington, 50
No comments:
Post a Comment