Hampton University in Virginia has fired nine of its police officers for sharing misogynistic and racist content on social media.
The officers’ actions were “egregious violations of the university’s code of conduct,” the university said in a statement.
“The university has a zero tolerance for such behavior,” the university said.
Hampton, the alma mater of Booker T. Washington, is one of the country’s oldest historically black universities.
A letter of termination written by Deputy Chief Ronald Davis said that a group of officers and supervisors at the department had taken part in “the third annual Meme Wars,” according to CNN affiliate WAVY, which published the letter.
“The ‘Meme Wars’ is described as a jovial release of photographs and captions designed to levy insults at others in the group as well as persons outside the group,'” the letter said.
“The memes produced and shared in this group were egregious and extremely inappropriate to be shared in the workplace,” Davis wrote.
Although the person who shared the letter with WAVY hadn’t produced any of the offensive memes, the letter said they “were aware of the meme wars” and “willingly participated.”
The university hasn’t released the names of the officers.
