‘Say Goodbye to Your Job’: Memphis Cop Under Fire for Facebook Comment Saying He Wants ‘a Refund for Slaves My Ancestors Lost’

A white Memphis police officer is at the center of an ethics complaint for a racist Facebook post in which he said that he believed he’s due reparations. According to Fox13, the complaint was filed against Sgt. Brandon Lea after he wrote a comment on Facebook that said, “Yeah, I think if the government pays reparations, then I want a refund for the slaves my ancestors lost.” It’s unclear what post Lea was referring to when he left the comment. He’s since deactivated his page. Memphis Police Department patrol car (Photo: Brad Vest/Getty Images) Last year, Tennessee’s Republican-controlled House tossed legislation that would have banned city governments from allocating taxpayer funds to study and distribute reparations. In February 2023, Shelby County officials approved a $5 million reparations program to study specific disparities in wealth, healthcare, and home ownership between Black and white citizens in Shelby County and Memphis and then directly fund programs to minimize those differences. The decision was made just one month after Tyre Nichols was fatally beaten by a group of Memphis police officers, an incident that set off protests nationwide. The commissioner who sponsored the bill proposed to pay for the program with the commission’s general...