Demonstrators gathered outside the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue headquarters Wednesday to protest the pace of an investigation into a firefighter's comments over the Trayvon Martin shooting made on his personal Facebook page.
The protesters, who assembled outside the headquarters in Doral, claim the internal investigation into Capt. Brian Beckmann is dragging on.
"The director should come out and speak to the public and apologize for the words of Brian Beckmann," protester Walter Clark said. "At the same time, Brian Beckmann should be fired."
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue issued a statement Wednesday saying they're still investigating Beckmann's post.
"The investigation is well underway; the department will not be rushed into completing this inquiry," the statement said. "The public is entitled to a thorough fact-finding process, and that is what we will do."
The post appeared on Beckmann's Facebook page earlier this month, on the same day State Attorney Angela Corey announced that George Zimmerman would be charged with second-degree murder in the Martin shooting.
In it, Beckmann had disparaging words for the prosecutor, then pondered “whether our urban youths are victims of racist profiling or products of their failed, (expletive), ignorant, pathetic, welfare dependent excuses for parents, but like Mrs. Corey, we speak only the truth. They're just misunderstood little church going angels and the ghetto hoodie look doesn't have anything to do with why people wonder if they're about to get jacked by a thug,” he wrote in the post, obtained by thegrio.com. Thegrio.com is owned by NBC Universal.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said in an earlier statement that the comments from Beckmann, who has been with the county since 1997, “are the opinion of the individual, and does not reflect the feelings of the department as a whole."
Prosecutors say Zimmerman shot Martin, 17, in a gated community in Sanford on Feb. 26. Zimmerman, 28, says he shot Martin in self-defense and has pleaded not guilty.
