A picture of the apparently bullet-ridden T-shirt of Obama draws punishment. Obama T-shirt cop demoted

A Police sergeant who posted a photo of a group of men holding what appeared to be a bullet-riddled T-shirt of President Barack Obama on his Facebook page last month has been demoted and suspended without pay for two weeks, the Peoria, Ariz., police department announced Tuesday.

Pat Shearer, a 25-year veteran of the Peoria police department who has been serving as a patrol sergeant, will be demoted to the rank of officer, spokesman Jay Davies said in a release. Shearer will also receive an 80-hour suspension without pay, effective immediately, and has 10 days to make an appeal, Davies said.


“The Peoria Police Department’s Code of Conduct states, all employees shall conduct themselves in a manner that shall never bring discredit or embarrassment to the City of Peoria or the Peoria Police Department,” Police Chief Roy Minter Jr. said in a statement. “We expect our employees to exercise sound judgment and not bring discredit upon our Police Department.”

Shearer made national headlines in January when he posted a controversial photo of men carrying guns and holding up a T-shirt featuring Obama’s face that was covered in what appeared to be bullet holes. At the time, the Secret Service said they were involved in the investigation of the photo.

“Any time information such as this is brought to our attention, where an individual or a group expresses unusual direction of interest in one of our protectees, we conduct appropriate follow-up,” Max Milien, a spokesman for the Secret Service, told POLITICO last month.

The photograph was allegedly taken by Shearer and has since been removed from his Facebook profile page. The sergeant had not initially been placed on any kind of administrative leave.

The Peoria police department said details of the investigation into the incident are considered a part of the public record, but that they could not be released until Shearer’s repeal process is completed.

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