The American Fork Police Department has apologized for posting a picture on social media that included a man “holding up a hand gesture that is offensive to many people,” but it did not address what he and a woman in the picture were wearing.
On Friday, the AFPD posted a Facebook photo “of some of our community members who were standing next to the road holding American flags and signs showing support for our military troops.” The intent, according to police, was to “highlight a positive event in our community” — and no one noticed that a man in the picture was holding up an “OK” hand gesture.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the gesture can signify “white power,” and is classified as a hate symbol.
“We do not condone such behavior, so the post was immediately removed as soon as we realized it existed in the photo,” according to a Facebook post by the AFPD, which was posted on Sunday. “We apologize to anyone who saw the photo before we took it down. Please know that [the] American Fork Police Department would not have posted that photo if we realized it contained that gesture/sign.”
What the apology did not address was that the man who was making the gesture was wearing a baseball hat imprinted with the logo of the Proud Boys, which has been declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Anti-Defamation League describes the Proud Boys as “misogynistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and anti-immigration. Some members espouse white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideologies and/or engage with white supremacist groups.”
In addition, a woman in the photo is wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the logo of a group that calls itself Utah Patriots, which staged an anti-vaccination protest Saturday at Salt Lake City Hall. The group describes itself as “unmasked, unmuzzled, unvaccinated, unafraid” and, in a promotion calling on protesters to gather in Salt Lake City, proclaimed, “Just say no to vaccines! It’s everyone’s job! We must take a stand!”
A small group identified as being associated with Utah Patriots also picketed Saturday at The Bayou, a bar and restaurant two blocks down State Street from Salt Lake City Hall. The Bayou was one of the first private businesses in Utah to require patrons show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination before entering.
The American Fork Police Department did not reply to a request for comment on the Proud Boys or Utah Patriots, except to point to its apology on Facebook.
A spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which advocates for civil rights for Muslims in the United States, praised the American Fork police for removing the post.
“Any effort or action … to repudiate white supremacy must be supported by Americans of all faiths and backgrounds,” Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for CAIR, said in a statement issued Monday.
