Second Metro Nashville police officer decommissioned within week for inappropriate Facebook post, changes profile picture to Black Panthers photo

Two Nashville police officers have been decomissioned within a week of each other for posts on their personal Facebook accounts.

Christopher Taylor was decommissioned Sunday after posting a Black Panthers photo as his profile picture.

The 11-year veteran changed his photo during Thursday night’s shooting in Dallas to a black-and-white image of two Black Panthers holding guns,according to Fox 17.

Taylor said that he frequently changes his photo and adds historical information, especially during Black History Month, which takes place in February.

“Other officers believe posting that picture was in extremely bad taste," attorney Jack Byrd, who often represents the Metro Nashville Police Department, told the station.

Last week, Hermitage Precinct midnight shift officer Anthony Venable was decommissioned after a post about the police shooting of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.

In a Facebook conversation, Venable, who was named Field Operations Bureau Officer of the Year in 2014, argued with a woman that the officer involved in the shooting would be “fine” because Castile “had a gun AND weed in (the) car,” according to WSMV Nashville.

After telling the woman that she didn’t understand how police operations work, Venable told her to put on 25 pounds of gear and “put your pretty little life on the line every f------ day.”

The woman asked the officer if his job involved “shooting someone 4 times...while continuing to keep your weapon drawn on someone while they bleed to death over a period of 10+ minutes?”

Venable replied “Yeah. I would have done 5,” presumably saying he would have shot Castile five times.

The eight-year force veteran acknowledged the post, but said he was being sarcastic, the Nashville Police Department said in a press release.

Chief Steve Anderson said the Office of Professional Accountability has begun an investigation into the post.

“What he said does not in any way represent the men and women of this police department. It was a disservice to the city of Nashville, it was a disservice to this police department,” Anderson told WKRN, the local ABC affiliate. “It was a disservice to every individual officer out on the street. It’s something that can’t be tolerated. It’s something we are going to take very seriously. He may have disqualified himself to be a police officer.”