Alaska police chief on administrative leave over ‘inappropriate’ social media posts

An Alaska police chief was put on administrative leave with pay for “inappropriate social media postings” that were resurfaced this week. 

“[T]he City recognizes and respects the diversity of our society and promotes the principles of tolerance and equality embedded in the Constitutional underpinnings of our Nation,” the city of Palmer, Alaska, wrote on its Facebook page Tuesday night.

“In furtherance of these principles the City will review the Palmer Police Departments (PPD) diversity training practices with the objective of robustly promoting and supplementing this training for the entire police department,” it added.

In 2017, Dwayne Shelton, the city’s police chief, posted that, “People cannot even be honest about their gender anymore,” in a reference to transgender people. 

In a 2018 post about Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who knelt to protest police brutality against unarmed black people, he called the Black Lives Matter movement “a hate group plain and simple.” He added that, “White privilege is a rubbish notion that is used to excuse the lack of hard work and motivation on certain members of society.”

The same year he shared posts that claimed false information from victims is common in sexual assault cases.

Palmer Mayor Edna DeVries said Tuesday she’s asked the city attorney and human resources director to look into the situation, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Shelton’s posts have been resurfaced in light of nationwide unrest following the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man who died in Minneapolis police custody last week.