NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans police sergeant reportedly won his job back after he was fired for social media posts he made after George Floyd’s murder calling protesters against police brutality “savages” and “animals.”
According to the Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate, NOPD Sgt. Anthony Edenfield’s firing was downgraded to an 80-day suspension by the Civil Service Commission after commissioners found that “the penalty of termination is not commensurate with the infraction.”
Edenfield, a homicide detective, was officially fired in Dec. 2020, six months after screenshots of his social media posts came to light. An account under his name called protesters against police brutality “savages” and “animals,” and commented that he would use lethal force if confronted by protesters.
The New Orleans Police Department’s Public Integrity Bureau found the posts racially insensitive, inappropriate and in violation of the department’s professional and moral conduct policies.
The newspaper reports Edenfield argued that his social media pages were not linked to his job, and he made the posts under duress because his 11-year-old daughter was worried about him after attacks on police officers.
The commission said that NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson did not consider other factors, including Edenfield’s “20-year work history with no discipline, his emotional state at the time and earlier posts supportive of racial harmony,” the newspaper reports. The commission concluded that those other factors led Ferguson to “improperly aggravate the penalty from an 80-day suspension to a termination.”
Edenfield will reportedly be reinstated with back wages.
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