A sheriff in Michigan insists that a Grindr account featuring a confederate flag profile image and the headline “White Guys Only” does not belong to one of his officers.
Macomb County Sheriff Anthony M. Wickersham confirmed this week that images sent from the Grindr account do, in fact, show one of his employees, but the account is a fake.
The images first emerged last week when someone by the name of Ian Peters posted them on social media, along with a screenshot of the deputy’s personal Facebook page.
“Do yo thang Facebook,” Peters wrote. “Macomb County Sheriff’s Office.”
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Included on the alleged Grindr profile was an image of the deputy in uniform plus another one of him posing in front of a mirror. The bio read: “You’d think they’d make an app just for white guys…”
Speaking to local LGBTQ publication Between the Lines, Peters says he felt compelled the share the screenshots because “why would a cop literally be frolicking around on a gay dating app like that, being straight-up racist and giving out that image and energy?”
He continued, “I just thought it was plain disgusting. And it makes me really upset to know that the people who are supposed to ‘serve & protect’ the community I live in are like that. Especially with everything going on in the world, and a cop from my area is gonna be out frolicking like that? Absolutely disgusting.”
After seeing the images, Wickersham says he wasted no time launching an internal investigation.
“The deputy was immediately notified and … denied any involvement,” he says, adding that the material was then “turned over to our computer crimes task force to identify the individual that posted it.”
But this isn’t the first time that particular deputy has been targeted, Wickersham says.
Earlier this year, he received an anonymous email from “a concerned citizen” about the same deputy’s alleged online behavior. After tracking the IP address of the objectionable material, however, the department cleared him of any wrongdoing.
“I believe it was about three-to-four months ago, we had an email that was sent to me anonymously [from] a concerned citizen of a deputy’s actions,” Wickersham recalls.
“The deputy denied it, our computer crimes task force went in and looked and we were able to identify the individual that created the account and was trying to smear the name of the deputy. At that point, the deputy didn’t want to pursue anything and the issue was dropped.”
When asked why someone might be motivated to continue to smear the deputy, Wickersham said he wouldn’t comment on the ongoing investigation.
“Well, at this point, we know what the circumstances were on the first one, and right now it’s just hard to speculate. And nor do I want to say anything as the investigation is going on, but it’s definitely not him that’s posting this kind of stuff online,” he affirmed.
“The pictures up [are] him, and it’s our guy. And we’re working on identifying [the person who posted them], and if we find them we will prosecute the individual responsible.”
Related: Police lieutenant busted for allegedly having Grindr PNP parties while on duty
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Chrisk
Someone obviously created a fake account to smear the guy.
Of coarse he is kind of hot so i can see this getting Graham’s attention. Lol
yancha
The story is about a possible straight guy being a closeted homosexual, That’s the only thing Graham is able to write about.
Creamsicle
Way to mislead people with that title. It shows a lot of journalistic integrity.
justgeo
Wrong site for truth of any sort!
imheya
THANK YOU!
jayceecook
Somebody is definitely out to “out” this officer in my opinion. Having read the article GG pulled this story from it seems like somebody who this guy probably “messaged with” online or maybe even hooked up with IRL is behind it. Unless they are covering his azz and it is his account. Because those are the only two options I can think of wherein they were able to post selfies and send nude photos of him to guys on the app.
I will say that this Ian Peters person seems to be an utter shitehead. “…why would a cop literally be frolicking around on a gay dating app like that, being straight-up racist and giving out that image and energy?” Really? So it never occurred to him that this might be suspect given what’s going on in this country and around the world? Not even for a second. Then to help facilitate doxxing him because you just thought “it was plain disgusting”. Not to mention putting a possible target on this dude’s back. He should be made to publicly apologise if it does indeed turn out to be another cyber attack on this guy.
TheBigOne
Ya’ll act as though you haven’t seen MANY “White only” ads on every single day dating site out there. Racism exists within our own ranks.
Den
So I go to 4 different dating sites and have to say I have seen very few profiles where people say “white only”. And some of the “white only” profiles are from black men.
I think most of the men with these kinds of racial/racist preferences are a bit more subtle, since unless they are stupid they know they are going to get grief. “No fats or fems” or “no bears” is a lot more common. But none of that stuff is as common as it used to be, especially in the old newspaper ad days (late 20th century).
Brian
The racism is more than a little heavy handed, you really need to be more subtle to make it a believable fake. I’m surprised they didn’t throw in a picture of a noose or burning cross.
garybw
Oh I don’t know, why do white officers kill black people.
Police officers suck dick too. They beat their spouses too.
Aires the Ram
So if one were to only listen to you, we might think that the 2% of police officers who are bad news, are the ONLY police officers you’ve ever come into contact with. What about the 98% of police officers who are good people? Or do I have your judging criteria mixed up? Perhaps, to make your “good” list, one must NOT be the following: 1. a policeman, 2. straight, 3. a conservative, 4. white, 5. et. al. Which by the way, leaves out all gay folks in law enforcement (my! you’re “woke” now aren’t you?), it leaves out all whites, it leaves out all straight people (tell that to your parents), leaves out all people who do not believe in, nor vote for, your Marxist agenda. My oh my, just how does it feel to be so “woke”?