This story was co-published with Illinois Times.
Facebook posts by two Springfield police officers last year harmed police operations and community relations. That was the conclusion of internal affairs investigations by the city police department, as well as reactions from capital city activists working to improve the relationship between law enforcement and the people they serve.
In a widely reported incident last May, Officer Andrew Barnes criticized the city’s two Black city council members. In a post on his personal Facebook page, Barnes called Ald. Shawn Gregory a “fucking idiot.” Barnes was pushing back on comments made by Gregory and then-Ald. Doris Turner in which the two criticized how police responded to block parties in Gregory’s majority-Black ward.
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Aaron Graves, the president of the Springfield Education Association, is temporarily stepping away from his duties as president following Sunday s arrest