FL Fire Capt. Demoted After Trayvon Martin Facebook Post Blasts 'Sh*tbag, Ignorant, Pathetic' Parents

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue captain Brian Beckmann has been demoted after his comments that "failed, sh*tbag, ignorant" parents are to blame for Trayvon Martin's death went viral.

Though he deleted the Facebook post in question, The Grio captured a screen shot:

"I and my coworkers could rewrite the book on whether our urban youths are victims of racist profiling or products of their failed, sh*tbag, ignorant, pathetic, welfare dependent excuses for parents...They're just misunderstood little church going angels and the ghetto hoodie look doesn't have anything to do with why people wonder if they're about to get jacked by a thug," it reads.

When responding to criticism, Beckmann originally said:  "I am a private citizen and have the same right to freely express an opinion on any subject that anyone else does. I choose not to embellish or alter the facts as your employer chose to do," but after the department launched an investigation and people began calling for him to be fired, he has since modified his position.

7 News has more information:

A picture of Beckmann's team on Facebook was flooded with comments, ranging from those protecting his right to free speech, to another who said: "The public are your 'customers'. If I went on a FB rant about my company's customers I would be fired in a heartbeat. To me, that's just common sense, which the Captain seems to be greatly lacking in. He also shows poor judgment, poor decision making skills, and a lack of impulse control (hiding behind 'freedom of speech). At the very least, has the Captain never learned that just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Shame on him..."

"I promise that I will try harder than ever to be a decent and professional public servant to the citizens of Miami-Dade County," Beckmann now says.  "My family has suffered tremendously and this has been punishment beyond anything I ever imagined."

Beckmann has been demoted to the role of firefighter, and will have to undergo both diversity training and a psychological evaluation.

"The comments made by Captain Beckmann were reprehensible and will not be tolerated. We can't have our employees, especially a supervisor, making such disparaging comments about any member of our community, much less one of our own employees...There's no such thing as being off-the-clock; we are public servants 24/7 and must conduct ourselves with the utmost professionalism at all times," Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez concluded.

Beckmann's case is reminiscent of the marine who was fired for posting anti-Obama comments on Facebook.