BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer has caused worldwide protests and calls across the country for widespread reforms in policing.
Not everyone, though, is mourning Floyd’s death.
In a recent TikTok video, a Bloomington man disparaged Floyd and applauded his killing.
He says in the video, “Y’all can hate me. Do whatever. I don’t give two (expletive). Unfollow me. Bye.”
The man ends the video saying, “Trump 2020. Four more years.”
The video has sparked outrage, with people sharing it more than 100 times on social media.
The man in the recording is now a former employee of Ken’s Westside Service and Towing after the company fired him. It turns out, he was more than an employee to the company's owners. He is also their son.
13News spoke with the towing company’s owner, Ken Parrish, over the phone Thursday. Parrish didn’t want to do an interview, but referred to his statement about the video on Facebook.
On the company’s Facebook page, Parrish wrote:
“As the owner of Ken’s Westside Service and Towing, I can’t express in words my disappointment in my employee who has taken upon himself to post the most disgusting opinions of some of the things going on in today’s world. I’m not going to try and hide the fact that this employee happens to be my own son. He was not raised this way.
My wife nor I as well as my whole company do NOT support anything he has said in his video and we can’t express how sorry we are to anyone he has hurt or offended by his words or actions. We have been working and helping people in our community as a family for 40 years.
I truly apologize to everyone. With a heavy heart I have dismissed my son of his duties here with us at Ken’s Westside. If anyone would like to have a personal conversation with my self or my wife about this please feel free to stop in and talk with us.
Our deepest apologies again to all.
Ken and Kathy Parrish.”
“The apology rings hollow,” said Vauhxx Booker with the Monroe County Human Rights Commission.
Booker helps enforce the county’s human rights ordinance which prohibits discrimination of any kind.
“Let me be frank. I’m sure this isn’t the first or 33rd time that this individual has espoused some type of rhetoric like this. I’m sure his parents, his coworkers have heard it before and they had an obligation to act, to remove him from the company,” said Booker.
Booker is concerned about who the company has contracted with and who they might serve.
“I would hate to be a vulnerable person, especially a minority at night and a gentleman that would make such an inflammatory message like this, be the one that would show up to help me,” Booker added, saying he plans to follow up with the city and county about contracts he’s aware of that the company has with both.
The administrator for the Monroe County Commissioners, Angie Purdie, told 13News the towing company has a new contract to service the county’s non-highway vehicles. Commissioners met Thursday to review that contract and looked at the response from Parrish, who has agreed for his entire company to go through implicit bias training.
Purdie told 13News the Monroe County Commissioners felt like this was an “opportunity to educate the community,” saying, “we have an opportunity to expand the consciousness of what’s right and what’s wrong.”
To Vauhxx Booker, though, it's much deeper than that.
“We need to make sure that as a county and as a city that we’re making sure that we protect our community, that we protect our vulnerable citizens,” said Booker.