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The Cop Who Said AOC “Needs A Round” Just Got Fired

Chief Arthur Lawson reportedly fired the 14-year veteran of the force and another officer who "liked" the threatening post
Chief Arthur Lawson reportedly fired the 14-year veteran of the force and another officer who "liked" the threatening post

The Louisiana cop who called AOC a “vile idiot” who “needs a round” has reportedly been fired, along with a fellow cop who “liked” the post.

Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson on Monday afternoon fired officer Charlie Rispoli and another officer, Angelo Varisco, according to WDSU-NBC reporter Christina Watkins.

“It’s very, very disappointing,” Lawson said in a press briefing. "To insinuate a violent act against a seated U.S. congresswoman… it's completely irresponsible and intolerable."

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The timing was particularly bad for Rispoli: He'd just completed social media training when he shared a fake news article about Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saying: “This vile idiot needs a round…and I don’t mean the kind she used to serve.”

Rispoli, a 14-year-veteran of the police department, appeared to be alluding to Ocasio-Cortez’s past as a bartender. The article he shared, headlined “Ocasio-Cortez On the Budget: ‘We Pay Soldiers Too Much’” came from a satire website called “Taters Gonna Tate.” The website proclaims on its “About” page that all of its content is fictional.

Rispoli’s post was first uncovered by nola.com on Saturday. Rispoli took it down, and appears to have since removed his personal Facebook page entirely.

Lawson had earlier told the New Orleans-based newspaper that he didn’t consider the post to be an actual threat, but still wasn't “taking this lightly” and would open an internal investigation.

The officer’s threat followed a week of AOC and “squad”-bashing from President Donald Trump, who called Ocasio-Cortez, Reps. Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib racist “troublemakers” on Monday. The four minority Congresswomen were also the subject of a since-deleted Facebook meme of a movie-style poster calling them “The Jihad Squad,” which was shared by the Republican County Chairmen's Association of Illinois.

Cover: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., attends a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Rayburn Building titled "Examining Facebook's Proposed Cryptocurrency and Its Impact on Consumers, Investors, and the American Financial System," on Wednesday, July 17, 2019. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)