DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa crime lab analyst fired after posting a rant against black people on Facebook has to pay back $3,800 in unemployment benefits.
An administrative law judge has ruled that former Division of Criminal Investigation criminalist Amy Pollpeter was fired for work-related misconduct and therefore was ineligible to collect unemployment insurance.
The Department of Public Safety fired Pollpeter in July after she blasted the Black Lives Matter movement and African-Americans on her publicly-accessible Facebook page.
In a post prompted by the killings of police officers in Dallas, Pollpeter wrote that she no longer felt safe around black people. She said that African-Americans have brought hatred upon themselves by “rioting, looting stores, and shooting cops” and by demanding “special rights.”
State officials said the post demonstrated bias and violated department policies.
