via Facebook
A former North Charleston police officer, who was fired for posting a photograph of himself in Confederate underwear just days after Dylann Roof killed nine people at a black church, claims he was punished because he is white. Sgt. Shannon Dildine filed a federal lawsuit filed this week claiming that, to him, the rebel flag represents anti-authority sentiments rather than racism—despite Roof and other white nationalists’ infamous use of the flag, and its historical repercussions. Citing a photograph taken a week prior, showing the city’s black assistant police chief, Reggie Burgess, posing with Black Lives Matter activists, Dildine also claims racial discrimination in that the assistant was not also fired. “[Dildine] was fired for expressing his First Amendment rights... And a white officer who does something is treated more harshly than a minority officer who does something,” the ex-cop’s attorney said of the lawsuit. Dildine seeks unspecified monetary damages from the city, citing post-traumatic stress from losing his job.