SAN DIEGO — A San Diego County sheriff’s deputy who circulated an offensive meme in the days following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police has been fired.
According to documents posted on the Sheriff’s Department website this week, former deputy Mark Ritchie was dismissed after losing his final appeal to the county civil-service commission.
Ritchie was a longtime department veteran who texted the racist and sexual meme to five colleagues in late May 2020, just days after Floyd was killed by a police officer who knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.
