A nurse who allegedly wrote on her Facebook page that Stephon Clark, the unarmed black man shot and killed by Sacramento police on March 18, "deserved it for being stupid," has been fired.
Faith Linthicum was a nurse at Kaiser Permanente's Roseville Medical Center at the time of the controversial Facebook comments, The Sacramento Bee reported. Before Linthicum restricted access to her Facebook page, civil rights activist Christina Arechiga took a screengrab of the comments and shared it on her social media accounts.
In the comments posted by Arechiga, Linthicum allegedly said, "Can we protest the deaths of all the people shot by black people too?" Commenting on the Clark case, she allegedly said, "Yeah, but he was running from the police jumping over fences and breaking in people's houses ... why run? He deserved it for being stupid."
Linthicum's alleged comments quickly went viral. When Kaiser Permanente learned of the controversy involving one of their employees, the hospital placed Linthicum on administrative leave pending an investigation. It announced Thursday that she no longer worked for the hospital, The Sacramento Bee reported.
Kaiser Permanente provided a statement to The Sacramento Bee: "Kaiser Permanente does not tolerate hate or discrimination and has a long history of embracing diversity and inclusion – it remains a place where we welcome everyone. We want to emphasize that the comments expressed by this employee, who is no longer with the organization, do not in any way reflect Kaiser Permanente’s views or actions."
Arechiga told The Sacramento Bee that Linthicum messaged her on social media, saying she was going to contact a lawyer about a defamation lawsuit.
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