If 2020 has reaffirmed anything, it's that national police departments are far overdue for reform.
The Mobile County Sheriff's Office is coming under fire after they posted their office Christmas tree. Instead of the normal ornament, tinsel and festive light trimmings used to decorate the tree, the sheriff's office found a twisted sense of holiday cheer in using mugshots of current inmates to dress the tree. They also swapped out the traditional choices of a star or an angel as a tree topper to use jail-issued sandals.
As if this wasn't distasteful enough, the Mobile County Sheriff's Office refers to the pictures as "thugshots" instead of mug shots, blatantly ignoring the "Thug"'s racial undertones when used in such context. Those involved also posted the picture of the tree on Thursday, which the office affectionately calls "Thug Thursday."
"HAPPY THUG THURSDAY MOBILE," the office explained per TMZ. "We have decorated our Tree with THUGSHOTS to show how many Thugs we have taken off the streets of Mobile this year!"
The post goes on to joke about allowing inmates to have free COVID-19 tests, letting them pick out stolen goods, as well as offering "custom" jumpsuit fittings.
As expected, this didn't sit well with a lot of people, forcing them to voice their displeasure.
