Deputy suspended after posts — again
Firing recommended following racist posts on social media sites.
A Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s deputy suspended in 2014 for inappropriate postings on social media is being investigated again after racist and other offensive posts were found on his Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Jason Van Dusen, a PBSO deputy since September 1998, was suspended with pay March 1 after the agency’s internal affairs unit began an investigation.
Among the controversial posts that led to Van Dusen’s latest suspension is one from his Twitter account — @angrytrashdude — published June 15, 2015, that displays a photo of Michelle Obama next to one depicting a “Planet of the Apes” character. Another Twitter post from December 2, 2015 — the day 14 people were shot to death in San Bernardino, Calif. — Van Dusen allegedly wrote, “I’d say we have more of a Muslim problem that a gun problem.”
The investigations into Van Dusen, in 2014 and the current probe, began after PBSO received a complaint from Everett Stern, the director of a national investigative firm based in West Chester, Pa.
The 2014 investigation resulted in a two-day suspension for Van Dusen.
In his complaint sent Feb. 1 to Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, Stern wrote he had “never heard of a law enforcement officer post(ing) such an extreme level of racist remarks against African Americans, Muslims, Jews, and Women.”
Bradshaw has recommended that Van Dusen be fired, sheriff ’s spokeswoman Teri Barbera said Wednesday. Barbera said there would be no further comment
because the investigation into Van Dusen is ongoing.
Van Dusen, assigned to patrol Royal Palm Beach, could not be reached for comment. His Twitter and Facebook accounts have been removed.
Documents show that Van Dusen was first placed on administrative leave in August 5, 2014, for allegedly posting “inappropriate images and racial comments” on social media.
An internal affairsinvestigation found that Van Dusen violated three PBSO policies — including appearing in social media in his PBSO uniform — but cleared him of making derogatory ethnic remarks. He was suspended for two days.
One Facebook entry that led to his 2014 suspension shows Van Dusen smoking a cigar “near Belle Glade” with two bodies lying on the ground. The posting, from November 17, 2013, reads: “Taking a break after two shootings tonight.”
The posting appears connected to a drive-by shooting that injured two men in Belle Glade. The men sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
In another 2013 posting, Van Dusen refers to an unidentified female and writes: “If I could get away with it, I’d punch her right in the mouth.”
Getting caught and suspended in 2014 apparently didn’t stop Van Dusen.
The newest complaint against Van Dusen includes postings more racially offensive. Aside from the entries involving Michelle Obama and the San Bernadino shootings is another post on Twitter from January 1, 2016, that shows a frowning black man with the words “....that look when KFC is closed.”
The most recent complaint from Stern notes that Van Dusen did not activatesecurity settings on his Twitter and Facebook accounts, allowing anyone to view the content. Van Dusen also didn’t deploy security settings on his accounts for the postings that came under scrutiny in 2014.
PBSO’s social media policy prohibits employees from appearing on any site while wearing the agency’s uniform or from displaying any PBSO-issued equipment.
The policy allows employees “to express themselves as private citizens” using social media accounts as long as those comments “do not compromise their ability to effectively perform their duties, disrupt the workforce, or otherwise impair the efficient operation of the agency.”