A Ferguson solidarity march last week in Minneapolis turned ugly when a man drove through activists and pinned a teenage girl under his car, sending her to the hospital. The incident made news rounds (with media capturing footage) and went viral online–and that's where we meet Santa Ana Police Sergeant Michelle Miller.
On her Facebook page, the sarge shared a wacky right-wing article titled “Driver Plows Through Ferguson Protestors In Minnesota.”
“I would have done the same,” she wrote. “I'm surprised this didn't happen more.” A friend added, “what are these savages thinking?”
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The protest-plowing driver isn't exactly the safest behind the wheel with a trio of DUIs on his record in addition to other related convictions–something the shit blog Miller shared failed to mention!
The Weekly contacted our pal, SanTana police spokesperson Anthony Bertagna, about Miller's comments. “To achieve its mission and efficiently provide service to the public, the Santa Ana Police Department carefully balances our individual employee's rights against the Department's needs and interests when assessing the propriety of an employees' speech and expression,” he said. “Where an employee's speech and expression conflict with the policies and performance of the Department, we will take appropriate administrative action,” he adds. “Any such administrative action would be considered a confidential personnel matter.”
Bertagna hadn't spoken to Sgt. Miller about her online comments at the time of his statement.
Too bad Facebook wasn't around when Know Nothing Hal Netkin hit pro-immigrant protesters with his van outside a California Coalition for Immigration Reform gathering at the Garden Grove Women's Civic Club in May 2005. Wonder what dashboard confessionals la jura would have given then!
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Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!