ODESSA, Texas — The Odessa Fire Department is trying to move forward after comments made by assistant fire chief, Joey White.
A post was made on social media asking if police should shoot protesters who throw objects at law enforcement. White responded "Without a doubt," and then added, "Shoot to kill these m*******rs!"
Fire Chief John Alvarez said those comments do not reflect the department and they are taking steps to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.
"Absolutely it can happen, but our main goal as an administration is to make sure that does not happen. I do plan on having a meeting with the entire department today and discuss some of those things that could happen if we're not careful on social media," Alvarez said.
Alvarez wants his fire department to understand that they are held to a higher standard being in the public eye.
"We’re always going to try to be proactive in these types of situations. You know it was an unfortunate event, it was a lapse in judgment and in no way does this reflect the values at the city of Odessa or the fire department, and so I need to make sure that our personnel are aware that we are held at a higher standard," Alvarez said.
While OFD doesn't have a social media policy in place at the moment, one is being drafted.
"We do have one in draft right now that we are making sure it gets vetted to the legal departments, but once we get that, we'll put that in play with that but we do have city policies and procedures that we also have to abide by," Alvarez said.
Above all else, Alvarez said that the fire department does not support White's comment, no matter what his intent was.
"We don’t support anything about the comment that was made. You know again, I think it was a mistake, it was a lapse in judgment. I believe he was trying to support our law-enforcement personnel. I don’t think it was ever intended to be physically harmful or racist or biased anyway," Alvarez said.
After White made the comment, he reported himself to Alvarez. White then received a suspension without pay.