If an investigation confirms what appears obvious, Dallas Police Chief Eddie García should fire the sergeant who wrote “aim better” in a social media post the day former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated at a campaign rally.
A man attending the rally was killed and Trump and two others injured after a shooter with an AR-style rifle crawled onto a nearby rooftop and opened fire minutes after Trump began speaking Saturday in Butler, Pa. The sickening attack was immediately and rightly condemned by leaders of both political parties, and us, too.
But later that day, Dallas police received a complaint from one of their own that Sgt. Arturo Martinez, a 14-year veteran of the department, had written “aim better” on a social media platform. Police launched an internal affairs review to “determine what department policy/policies were violated by the comment,” according to a statement.
Martinez’s lawyer has given unconvincing explanations for his comment. Attorney Jane Bishkin, acknowledging her client wrote the post, said he did so as a private citizen, not as a police officer. Not only was the post not meant for public consumption, but it was taken out of context, Bishkin told our newsroom colleague, Kelli Smith. Bishkin said Martinez was referring to the Secret Service, not the would-be Trump assassin.
But that’s not credible. By all accounts Secret Service agents, though they may have failed in securing the venue and surrounding area, had very good aim in killing the gunman seconds after the attack began.
Bishkin said Martinez also had “a 100% constitutional right” to publish the comment. But the police department’s social media policy, revised in 2020 after more than a dozen officers were disciplined for inappropriate posts, put clear guardrails on what is and isn’t OK.
The policy states, in part: “Employees are free to express themselves as private citizens on social media sites to the degree that their speech does not impair working relationships of the Department, impede the performance of their duties, impair discipline and harmony among coworkers, or interfere with the regular operation of the Department.”
The policy adds that concerning speech could include violent content, comments that threaten or defame a person or content that incites violence.
García was right when he said that the comment, if written as a reaction to the would-be assassin, “has no place in our society, and certainly no place in law enforcement.”
We couldn’t agree more, and the chief should act accordingly.
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