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Nelsonville Police Officer Resigns Over ‘Insensitive’ Facebook Post
By: David Forster
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NELSONVILLE, Ohio (WOUB) — A Nelsonville police officer sworn in Friday afternoon resigned several hours later over a post she had made on social media.
Nelsonville Police Chief Scott Fitch announced the officer’s resignation in a post on his department’s Facebook page late Friday night. The officer was not named in the post, but Fitch later confirmed that it was Tracy Varner.
Varner was sworn in as a Nelsonville police officer Friday around 2 p.m. Fitch said that around 7 p.m. a screenshot of what he described as an “insensitive” post from Varner’s Facebook page was brought to his attention. He consulted with Nelsonville City Manager Scott Frank, and the two decided it was in the city’s best interest to ask for Varner’s resignation.
The resignation came a few hours after Athens County Copwatch posted on its Facebook page a screenshot of a post Varner made on her Facebook page.
The post captured by the screenshot says:
Kamala Harris says “the nation has been pierced over Jacob Blake shooting”!….. Only thing I’m aware of being pierced is Jacob Blake with lead. #goodshooting
Varner’s Facebook page is no longer publicly viewable.
In his announcement of Varner’s resignation, Fitch wrote that her Facebook post “does not represent the views or values of the Nelsonville Police Department or the City of Nelsonville. We are working hard to give the residents of Nelsonville a police department that upholds the standards of the community and equally represents everyone. We would like to apologize to anyone that was negatively affected by this incident. In moving forward, we want everyone to know that the Nelsonville Police Department will not tolerate insensitive behavior by any of its employees.”