STEVENS POINT, WI (WSAU) — Each week the Portage County Sheriff’s office releases a “Weekend Humor” post to their Facebook fans. It’s a post generally intended to give everyone a laugh at closing time or to help take the edge off after a long workweek.
The post for this weekend may have done that for some, but others found it to be downright racist.
The post featured the popular character “Farva” (played by Kevin Heffernan) from the Super Troopers movie franchise. In it, it’s implied that he’s relaying the name of someone to check for any outstanding warrants or other violations. The trooper spells out the last name Smith using radio code (Sam, Mary, Ida, Tom, Harry), then follows with the first name Tawneequa followed by “common spelling”.
To many, the post implied that the department might think anyone with an ethnic-sounding name is a common troublemaker and backlash began pouring in nearly instantly. Many saying the post was a sign of racism.
The department later deleted the post and posted a statement signed by Chief Deputy Kontos, who is the creator of the weekly post. The statement didn’t necessarily apologize to those who were offended. Instead, Kontos asked if they still would have been offended if he had replaced the name “Tawneequa” with another complex last name commonly found in Portage Count such as Przybylski. Kontos added the uncommon name was the point of the post, and if he had the chance to do it again he probably would have used that name instead of sharing the post as it was.
Kontos didn’t create the post himself. Instead, it came from another site.
Kontos says he believes anyone who was offended by the post is someone who seeks out reasons to be offended on a regular basis. “We find ourselves living in a hypersensitive world because of some, and frankly, going through life walking on eggshells because of them only adds to their sense of dystopia. This tempest in a teapot is ridiculous.”
He went on to add “I am going to pull down the post now, not because there is anything wrong with it, but because the cyber-mob (many who don’t even live around here) doesn’t need a forum to display THEIR racism. I hope they didn’t spend too much time and effort on their comments. Frankly, I didn’t feel I needed to read them. Hate has never interested me.
As for this dust-up. I’m done with it, period. I’m sure that you may see some residual bent feelings or fake-news here or there. Just remember that in the end, good people WILL prevail. I am already working on my next weekend humor post. I hope you continue to enjoy them.”
You can read the entire post from Kontos by clicking here.
