A police officer from northern Pennsylvania filmed a TikTok defending the Confederate flag while he was on duty, WETM 18 News reported.
Officer Brian Gossert, a Mansfield Borough Police Department officer, was live on TikTok when he began defending the Confederate flag.
“I don’t understand how it [the Confederate flag] is racist. It represents the South, just like the Union flag represents the North. No one says that the Union flag is racist, so why are we saying the Confederate flag is racist?” Gossert said.
“So yeah, technically they fought for slavery, I guess you could say, but again, that’s been over 200 years ago. I think it’s time that people just like, get the f— over themselves. Because … if the symbolism behind that flag is still that hurtful now, then we should still hate the South,” Gossert continued.
Gossert went on to say that police officers are wrongly accused of racism and that it is Democrats who are racist.
Mansfield Borough Manager Christopher McGann told 18 News in Elmira, N.Y., the department is aware the situation, but declined to comment on the officer’s current status.
“The Borough Council is appalled and outraged by this conduct,” the department said in a Facebook post. “The officer has been suspended and an investigation is proceeding.”
Gossert continued filming the TikTok while he was arresting a man.
Gossert became a full-time officer with the department in the fall of 2020, the same year that 160 Confederate symbols were removed from public spaces.
Updated on April 1 at 9:13 a.m.