A Louisiana Cop Said AOC “Needs a Round”

A Louisiana police department is investigating one of their cops after he called Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a “vile idiot” who “needs a round” in a Facebook post.

“This vile idiot needs a round…and I don’t mean the kind she used to serve,” Gretna Police Officer Charlie Rispoli said in a Facebook post last week, according to a screenshot obtained by nola.com. Rispoli was alluding to the progressive Democratic congresswoman’s past as a bartender, and appears to be saying she should be shot.

Rispoli’s Facebook post was commenting on an article headlined “Ocasio-Cortez On the Budget: ‘We Pay Soldiers Too Much’” from a satire website called “Taters Gonna Tate.” The website proclaims on its “about” page that “Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined.”

AOC’s been a favorite target of right-wingers for her outspokenness and “socialist” policy proposals, painting her as a scary specter of what’s to come with the Democratic Party.

Since the officer’s post was uncovered by nola.com on Saturday, the Gretna Police Department has vowed to carry out an internal investigation into Rispoli, a 14-year veteran of the department. The officer had just completed social media training, according to WDSU, a local NBC affiliate.

“I will tell you this: This will not go unchecked,” Police Chief Arthur Lawson told nola.com, adding he didn’t consider the Facebook post to be an actual threat. “I’m not going to take this lightly, and this will be dealt with on our end. It’s not something we want someone that’s affiliated with our department to make these types of statements. That’s not going to happen.”

If he were to be disciplined, the punishment wouldn’t be made public, according to nola.com.

The officer’s seemingly violent social media commentary followed a week where Ocasio-Cortez and her three “squad” Congressional colleagues — Reps. Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib — were the primary targets of President Donald Trump’s ire. He told the minority Democratic congresswomen that they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” The four women were also the subject of a since-deleted Facebook post of a movie-style poster calling them “The Jihad Squad,” which was shared by the Republican County Chairmen's Association of Illinois.

The Gretna Police Department has not yet responded to a VICE News request for comment. Rispoli has since deleted the Facebook post and his personal Facebook page, according to NOLA.com.

Cover: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., attends a House Oversight Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, July 15, 2019, on White House counselor Kellyanne Conway's violation of the Hatch Act. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)