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MANSFIELD — A Mansfield police officer is currently suspended due to comments he recently made on a social media platform.
Officer Brian Gossert of the Mansfield Borough Police Department went live on social media platform TikTok discussing his stance on defending the Confederate Flag. Officer Gossert was on duty at the time of this live.
“I don’t understand how the Confederate flag is racist,” he says on the post, “It represents the South, just like the Union flag represents the North. No one says the Union flag is racist, so why are we saying the Confederate flag is racist?
“So yeah, technically they fought for slavery, I guess you could say, but again, that’s been over 200 years ago. Because, if that’s true, if the symbolism behind that flag is still that hurtful now, then we should still hate the South.”
“Why hate them for something that no one is alive from anymore?” he continued.
Along with using multiple expletives, Gossert answered questions from those responding to his remarks.
Gossert went on to say that the Democrat party “started the KKK” and told those who agree with that party to “get f*cked” and “read a f*cking history book,” while accusing Democrats for starting racism.
Interrupting his rant, the police officer actually arrested a man while he was filming live.
“This is why you don’t do meth,” he said.
The TikTok account, “officer_goose,” has since been deleted, but the video was screen recorded and shared on social media.
Mansfield Borough released the following statement after the incident went viral on social media and local community members shared it: The Mansfield Borough Council is aware that a borough police officer posted offensive videos on a social media platform which were recorded and posted while he was on duty. The Borough Council is appalled and outraged by this conduct. The officer has been suspended and an investigation is proceeding. The views expressed in these videos do not reflect the values of the Borough government.
The investigation is still on going as of press time.