Cops in Georgia are back peddling after a video was posted online of white people using an image of a Black man as a target practice during a firearms training course administered by the police department. 

According to WSBTV, the video was posted on the Villa Rica Police Department’s Facebook page and the post got more than 500 comments and more than 400 shares. The police department also posted images of the event with white citizens aiming their weapons at images of a Black man.

Members of the community condemned the video and photos calling it offensive and disgusting. “You put this image up and we’re being shot at,” resident Emmanuel Mincey told WSB-TV.

Mincey also filed a complaint about the incident and says it sends the wrong message to the community.

Villa Rica Mayor Gil McDougal also condemned the video and photos, demanding the police department remove the content and has also asked for an investigation into the incident.  He also said that the city has received numerous complaints 

“It was immediately clear to me that the selection of these images during training was offensive,” he told WSBTV. “Seems like you could see right from the moment you put these pictures up that there was going to be a question.”

Police Chief Michael Mansour admitted to the posting but says the images were not posted out of malice or hate.

“The perception of it looks like we have people just shooting at black guys and that’s not at all what it was,” Mansour told the news outlet. 

Mansour also said the white targets were also used but were not posted.

“That day, they started with that target,” Mansour said while pointing at an image of a white man.

“They ran out of those targets at the range. And they put these targets up,” he continued, as he pointed to the image of the black man.

He did however take responsibility for the mistake saying his officers just missed the message it would send.

“We did not notice that because we don’t look at that. Therefore, it was just a mistake,” Mansour said.

Meanwhile, angry citizens continue to express their displeasure with the city for the incident as the Mayor tries to ensure that nothing like this happens again.

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