GO FERG YuRSELF!

Mo. TV guy ripped for sick joke

A LOCAL TV reporter in St. Louis is facing mounting pressure to resign after posting a sick “lead diet” joke on Facebook in reference to the shooting death of Michael Brown.

After Brown’s mother had been invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention, Bobby Hughes posted on July 22 that “she’s going to talk about the new lead diet she’s endorsed. Five servings and you can lose 200 lbs in two years easily,” the St. Louis American reported.

Hughes had been responding to a post by Lt. Jerry Foster, who wrote, “Why not let them speak. It is the Democratic Criminal Party. How fitting,” according to the newspaper.

Michael Brown, 18, who was black, was fatally shot by Officer Darren Wilson, who is white, in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014.

Brown’s mother, Lezley McSpadden, appeared as part of “Mothers of the Movement” onstage at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia Tuesday night.

People are calling for Hughes’ ouster and a boycott of the station. Fox 2’s black employees plan an “emergency meeting” with the station’s general manager. Fox 2 said it is “aggressively handling” the situation.

The Ethical Society of Police, which represents minority cops in St. Louis, said Hughes must apologize to the community and to the Brown family for the tasteless remark.

The organization also said that Lt. Foster and others who posted on the Facebook thread should face sanctions for their actions as well.

“They have helped to continue the divide between the police and our community,” Sgt. Heather Taylor, president of the Ethical Society of Police, told the newspaper.

“We each have the right to freedom of speech . . . . However, we must be careful that our rights don’t harm others with our own hatred, intolerance, and ignorance as we use that right.”