An Ohio cop has been fired for posting a Snapchat photo using a ‘balaclava’ filter that the mayor said had ‘troubling racial connotations’.
Michael Reschke, 43, was placed on administrative leave following a complaint on August 23, 2023.
He was fired two days later by the Lockland mayor Mark Mason, who reprimanded him for taking the picture while in uniform.
‘The Village’s police department has no room for conduct that is racist or even creates the appearance of racism or poor judgment,’ Mason told WAFB as he doubled down on the decision.
‘This conduct does not meet the standard of conduct expected of its officers and will not be tolerated.’
Ohio cop Michael Reschke has been fired for posting a Snapchat photo using a ‘balaclava’ filter that the mayor said had ‘troubling racial connotations’
Lockland mayor, Mark Mason, said the police department, ‘has no room for conduct that is racist or even creates the appearance of racism or poor judgment’
Reschke sent the image, which was taken at the police station, to a ‘closed group’ but it was leaked to the authorities.
He appeared to acknowledge it could be compromising in a series of texts about the incident.
Reschke stated he believed could ‘trust my friends on Snapchat with a filter that looked racist not to be taken as anything else other than a joke’ after a friend suggested he was aware the image could be deemed ‘extremely offensive’.
When the friend told him ‘some things should not be joked about’, Reschke retorted that people should not have been recording on his Snapchat, according to the messages obtained by WAFB.
A few weeks after the incident, Reschke was hired by North College Hill Police Department but claims he was ‘pushed out’ over a letter he allegedly sent to Lockland officials which ‘violated North College Hill’s Standard’s of Conduct Policy’.
The letter was raised by Mason with North College Hill’s mayor Tracie Nichols and was described as ‘both very troubling and certainly unbecoming of any police officer representing a municipality’.
Reschke claims he wrote the letter but did not distribute it, pointing out that it was drafted 63 days before it was sent to Lockland officials.
The image was taken at Lockland police station and showed Reschke in uniform using this Snapchat filter
Reschke’s lawyer put the incident down to a ‘joke’ and called his sacking a ‘travesty of justice’
He alleges that North College Chief Ryan Schrand acknowledged that ‘what happened in Lockland wasn’t fair’.
He complained that Schrand had ‘secretly’ hired him to plug gaps due to recent terminations and ‘had no intention of keeping me long-term’.
‘I just want to do what I was born to do…serve and protect the people with the skills I am fortunate to possess, Reschke said in the complaint.
‘I’m a good officer who just wants a chance to do his job without vendetta politics. I would be honored if you would give me just five minutes of your time to look at the real truth regarding the Village of Lockland.’
‘What Lockland did to Michael is a grotesque disgrace and a travesty of justice,’ Reschke’s attorney Steve Imm told DailyMail.com.
‘The city should be ashamed of what it has done to this good and decent public servant. Michael is not a racist. He is not within 1000 miles of being a racist.
The worst part is that Lockland KNEW that Michael is not racist, but they chose to be cowardly instead of doing a reasonable, rational investigation.
‘All Michael did was make a harmless joke that no reasonable person would have regarded as racist in any way, shape, or form. What Lockland did and continues to do to Michael is simply disgusting.’