CHADBOURN, N.C. (WECT) – A police officer with the Chadbourn Police Department was fired Tuesday following backlash over a post he made on Facebook.UPDATE: Demonstrators show support for NC police chief after officer fired over Facebook post

Ricky Soles said he was given the opportunity to resign, and refused. Soles added he was then terminated on the grounds that his actions were unbecoming of a police officer and violated the law enforcement code of ethics.

Soles deleted his Facebook account Monday after many community members called his post racist and offensive.

Soles sent in a statement Monday regarding the Facebook post:

Many believe the statement was made that this post is racist. This post is in NO WAY racist. This post in NO WAY relates to any race, religion, sex, culture, age group, movement, ect.. This post is directed to CRIMINALS, ‘’bad guys’’. This post is directed to individuals who break the law and believe it is ok, or believe they can get away with it. This post represents the truth of how 99% of individuals I have ever placed in handcuffs feel. I say this from individuals making excuses as to why they broke the law, or defending the fact they broke the law. Almost always individuals I have arrested do not take responsibility for the action or crime they have committed, instead blame is placed on another. Most crimes, especially property crimes are committed by individuals with little or no education due to the fact of needing money for whatever the reason maybe. Studies have shown persons with little or no education have trouble finding steady good paying jobs. Some of these individuals turn to crime whether drug dealing or property crimes as a supplement to income. Children are not raised properly because the criminal spends a great deal of time in jail, on the run from LEO, or out committing crimes. as a result children lose out on parental role model. Criminals a lot of times think they are owed something when they have not worked for it. This thought usually results in property crime being committed. Murderers, also known as criminals or bad guys, celebrate violence. Any person who beats his/her domestic partner is a criminal. Criminals or bad guys do not see the direct connection between their decisions and their quality of life, often they don’t think about the consequences of a crime before its committed. This is a breakdown of what the quote means to me. As I said before it is not racist, it is not meant to be racist, it is not directed at any one person, it is not directed to a race, religion, culture, age group, movement, ect..”

Soles also went on to state that those weren’t his words as it was copied and pasted from a post on the Police One website and was written by a sheriff in Milwaukee.RELATED: NC police officer’s Facebook post prompts investigation

He claimed the post is referring to criminals and not anyone of a certain race.

“That’s just how–he related to it–I mean he didn’t say any color—he related to it because criminals committing murder and violent at that time they are criminals,” stated Shana Soles, Ricky Sole’s wife.

Residents of Chadbourn said that in the wake of the officer-involved shooting in Charlotte, they’re upset to see a post like this by someone in their community.

“It’s scary to be honest with you, it’s scary. We’ve got police riding through here every day, and people don’t know what to do, if we should hold our hands up or put their hands down you know. It’s very sad,” said Lena Stephens.

Others said they didn’t see the harm in Soles’s post.

“I don’t see nothing wrong with what he said, everybody does need to take responsibility, stop committing crime. If you don’t break the law you don’t need to worry about the law, everybody has a responsibility whether they step up to it or not,” said Alvin Leggett.

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