AndrewBlakeThe Gainesville Police Department officer whose “hot cop” photo went viral has resigned from the department before he was to be interviewed for an investigation into anti-Semitic social media posts made before he was hired and for possibly having sex on the job.
Officer Michael Hamill resigned on Dec. 6, according to Gainesville.com.
In September, Officer Hamill became an social media hit when a selfie of him and two other officers was posted on the police Facebook page. That selfie was shared on Facebook over 276,000 times and had 517,000 “likes.”
However, within days of that posting, Officer Hamill was suspended by the Gainesville police for comments he made online about Hitler and Jews. The comments were made in 2011 and 2013 and before he was with the police force, according to the Washington Post.
According to the Gainesville Sun, there was an April 2013 post where Hamill wrote: “Who knew that reading Jewish jokes before I go to bed would not only make me feel better about myself but also help me to sleep better as well. Here is one for everybody, ‘What’s the difference between Boy Scouts and Jews?’ Anybody know? Well it is because ‘Boy Scouts come back from their camps.’”
One person replied to that Facebook post and said that comment was “messed up.” Hamill replied, “u don’t like it? don’t read it then.”
In a 2011 post, Hamill wrote: “So I find it funny that people will talk about how our government needs to do something about our economy and in reality it’s YOU who needs to stop taking advantage of our system and get a life and do something with your life. Gotta love reality when it hits you in the face. Stupid people annoy me. Put them in an oven and deal with them the Hitler way. Ha-ha.”
An Internal Affairs report stated that investigators found four dates between February and April 2017 when Hamill visited a woman while on-duty. Hamill is believed to have had sex with the woman while on duty, the report stated.
The woman told investigators she and Hamill first met while he was driving her home as an Uber driver, which was a violation of the police department’s general order about outside employment.
GPD spokesman Ben Tobias said in a statement the social media posts and having sex on the job were each grounds for termination.
Hamill resigned when he was to appear for an Internal Affairs interview. He had been sworn in as a GPD officer in October 2016, Gainesville.com reported.