Alabama sheriff’s mugshot Christmas tree stirs debate over the word ‘thug’
Updated Dec 10, 2020;
Posted Dec 10, 2020
Mugshots of arrested suspects in Mobile County don a Christmas tree in this picture that has been posted on the Sheriff s Department s Team Sheriff Facebook page. The post has stirred divisive reaction, some of it directed at law enforcement. (snapshot from Facebook)
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The posting has since been taken down, and Sheriff Sam Cochran has said he was unaware about the racial sensitivity of the word, “thug.” He said that many of the inmates photoshopped to the tree were white, and that his administration had no idea what they were doing would trigger widespread rebuke.