Florida Officer Fired After Calling Trayvon Martin a 'Thug' on Facebook

A Florida beach safety officer was fired on Friday after he referred to Trayvon Martin as a "thug" on his personal Facebook page.

Todd Snipes, a beach officer of 15 years who was stationed about 40 minutes from where Trayvon Martin was killed in Sanford, Fla., was initially suspended for the post he made on Facebook last month.

"Another thug gone," Snipes wrote the night of George Zimmerman's acquittal. "Pull up your pants and be respectful. Bye bye thug r.i.p."

In his termination letter, Department of Public Protection Director George Recktenwald wrote that Snipes had “engaged in behavior that threatens the respect and trust of the community and jeopardizes the perception that the department enforces the law fairly, even-handedly and without bias," according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Florida Beach Officer Todd Snipes was fired Friday for  comments he made on Facebook about the Trayvon Martin case. (Photo credit: WESH-TV)

Recktenwald added that the "racial content of these text messages is not only unprofessional, but disturbing coming from a supervisor of Volusia County Beach Safety."

Snipes was also involved in a series of picture messages about the case, one depicting Trayvon Martin holding a bag of skittles accompanied by the words "those Skittles were to die for."

The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported that Snipes directed all requests for comment to his attorney, who could not be reached.

Watch an earlier report about Snipes' suspension, courtesy of local NBC affiliate WESH:

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