An Apex police officer tells the neighbor he was “dismayed” by his family’s Christmas card in protest of Black Lives Matter

APEX, NC (WTVD) – An Apex mother, who is also director of the Wake County public school system, was dismayed by the response she received from a neighbor, who is an Apex police officer. , for the Christmas postcard he sent this year.

Lori Nelson said it should bring joy.

Therefore, the reaction of the police officer living next door caught her unawares.

The reaction responded to one of the photos on his card. Includes 11 family photos and offers a year review.

There are snapshots of trips to the mountains, the beach and Washington DC. One of the photos was of a Black Lives Matter protest to which she took her children this year to show them what it means to fight for justice.

But Nelson says an Apex police officer living next door sent a text message after receiving holiday congratulations.

“I can’t believe anyone, a leader in my community, would write this to me,” he said. “The most worrying thing was when he said he would no longer tolerate that.”

The agent allegedly wrote that he was “dismayed” that the image was sent to him and that he “has a hard time believing” that an “upper middle class white family living in the suburbs has the slightest clue about the problem outside of what look at the news “.

The text message also says, “I have tolerated neighborhood signs that are a slap.”

Nelson provided a copy of the text message to ABC11.

Nelson said the neighborhood posters he refers to are Black Lives Matter posters.

She feels that her message reveals a bigger problem.

“There’s a cultural problem in our police department. If it felt right to send a response like that, that’s the culture of your work environment,” he said.

Nelson went to the police and said the administrators appeased her.

“At one point, it was” Mrs. Nelson, are you sure you don’t stress about work? Or you’ve had a bad interaction with the police before, ”he said.

Apex Deputy Chief of Police Mitch McKinney says the department is aware of the incident and has stressed that there is an internal investigation into the personal matter.

Nelson is pushing for the police department to begin a cultural assessment in hopes of improving relations.

“I hope, as a community, we can get together and say‘ Hey, we have fantastic officers trying to do a great job, but we also have a problem and we have to address it, ”he said.

Nelson will address the incident in person at Tuesday’s Apex city council meeting.