SOUTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — After Atlanta's WSB-TV posted a story on Facebook about an officer being fired for an incident involving a black man, a message appeared in the comment section that read:
“Thugs deserve it. If a family member so be it. However, I do no have any thugs in my family that I am aware of. Seems to be people of color who are the problem.”
Now, a United Parcel Service Inc. human resources supervisor accused of posting the racially insensitive comment is off the job.
“She made a racist statement,” Marshea Washington said. “It does bother me that she would generalize us and make us as if we are thugs, because I’m not raising thugs, and I’m raising three African sons.”
Washington's anger came after she learned that her neighbor, Gwendolyn Carder, allegedly posted the comment.
The story posted to Facebook last Saturday centered around an officer with Georgia's Athens-Clarke County Police Department who was fired for hitting a fleeing suspect with his patrol car.
Body camera video showed Timmy Patmon running from police, heading toward Nellie B Avenue. Patmon was on probation and there were felony warrants out for his arrest.
In his first attempt to block Patmon from escaping, Officer Taylor Saulters hit the curb and flattened a tire on his patrol car.
Saulters continued his pursuit, and as soon as he got close enough to Patmon, his body camera revealed, he swerved toward Patmon and hit him with the police cruiser.
The story led to hundreds of comments on WSB-TV's Facebook page, but one in particular stirred controversy and resulted in Carder's firing from UPS Inc.
Shortly after the comment was posted, WSB-TV's followers alerted them that the woman worked for the package delivery company as a human resources supervisor at its center off Fulton Industrial Boulevard.
WSB-TV contacted the company. On Monday, a spokesperson for UPS Inc. confirmed the company fired Carder after 25 years on the job and released the following statement:
"UPS has no tolerance for hate, bigotry or prejudice. The company embraces diversity and inclusion as one of its core values. The comments Ms. Carder shared in response to WSB-TV's story do not reflect UPS's values or culture."
WSB-TV's Nefertiti Jaquez stopped by Carder's home in Kennesaw on Tuesday night to get her side of the story, but no one came to the door.
"That was pretty bold, and now she has to deal with the consequences of it," Washington told WSB-TV.