I'm sick and tired of the negative, hostile, racially charged and false accusations levied against cops every day on social media. I'm especially annoyed when they come from a person who clearly should know better.

Michellene Davis is a former NJ State Treasurer and current Executive Vice President for Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health, a leading NJ health care company. Reacting to a Facebook Post containing an article about the Fair Lawn Police being trained as school resource officers to protect kids in school, Michellene posted a comment that was race-bating, offensive and flat out false.

Of course, learning about the post late Wednesday night, I was prepared to discuss the issue with our audience on Thursday. And discuss we did. Not long after callers flooded the show expressing disgust with the post, Michellene made her twitter account private (yes of course I mentioned her handle and encouraged people to let her know how they felt about the post) and posted an apology to Facebook.

(Facebook Screenshot)
(Facebook Screenshot)
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I gave her credit for apologizing and think that we should have more civil dialogue following outrageous outbursts like her first comment painting cops as racist child killers. It's OK for people to make mistakes and then apologize. Of course with the report that she initially tried to explain the post by claiming her account was hacked, at least she owned it Thursday morning and apologized.

How many people have lost jobs and reputations from one crazy post? Sometimes people get slammed for a repost or retweet. The extreme political Left has zero tolerance for posts that are labeled racist, bigoted or otherwise offensive, even if they are mistakes, outliers and inconsistent with the social media users reputation.

Beyond anger-posts, how many Christians have been vilified as bigots for posting their thoughts on traditional marriage? How many pro-cop social media users have been attacked mercilessly as racists for posting negative comments about the false narrative pushed by Black Lives Matter?

Given the vitriol we're seeing on social media lately, is an apology enough for a negative post from a well educated for top level government official now sitting in a senior health care position making somewhere near three-quarters of a million a year? For me, yes, I accept it and would love to see us move past this ugly incident. But will that courtesy be returned the next time someone posts something in anger and then regrets and apologizes?

Is it fair that an anti-cop post can be explained as an angry and regrettable moment and then dismissed while posts attacking Antifa, BLM and other radicals on the Left are often met with scorn, ridicule and no room for apology, even when they are outliers and not consistent with the person's 'big picture' character?

If an apology is good for one, it has to be good for the other. Adults own up to what they've done, and Michellene did just that today. Let's hope it's a sign of a refreshing and mature pattern of behavior to come. We'll see...but, don't hold your breath.

Bill Spadea is on the air weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m., talkin’ Jersey, taking your calls at 1-800-283-1015. Tweet him @NJ1015 or @BillSpadea. The opinions expressed here are solely those of Bill Spadea.

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