Christopher Flanigan, a math teacher at Coney Island Prep in Brooklyn, was fired from his job after he pushed for violence against the cops in a post made on Instagram. The anti-cop story featured thousands of cops who had gathered for the funeral of slain NYPD cop Jason Rivera outside St. Patrick's Cathedral.
The 22-year-old NYPD officer and his partner Wilbert Mora, 27, were killed in an ambush while responding to a domestic violence call in East Harlem, last Friday. Rivera's funeral was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Midtown.
Flanigan Claims His Words Were 'Misconstrued'
The math teacher's Instagram story carried an overhead shot of thousands of officers lining Fifth Avenue for Rivera's funeral on Friday. The inflammatory post was captioned, "5/30/20: NYPD SUV drives into a crowd of protestors. Ideal conditions for reciprocity."
Speaking to the New York Post, Flanigan revealed that he was receiving death threats following his now-deleted Instagram story. Claiming that his message was "misconstrued"
"I was really just trying to show the vulnerability of all of these police officers being in the same place at the same time which seems like a dangerous situation for anyone that would be that gathered together," Flanigan told the outlet.
"I respect the NYPD. I do not condone violence," he continued. "A 22-year-old police officer murdered in the line of duty is reprehensible. I'm devastated by that. I'm devastated that his partner passed a week later. These are not things that sit well with me."
"I was trying to show the vulnerabilities between all the police gathered that closely together," Flanigan said. "Nobody should be in that ground the way that they were. I thought that it was too vulnerable and I was trying to draw a parallel between those two things."
Flangian Faces Heat on Social Media
Flanigan post referenced the incident when an NYPD vehicle drove through a group of Brooklyn protesters demonstrating against the police following the death of George Floyd.
Even though the story was deleted by the teacher a few hours later, its screenshot found its way on multiple social media pages. "Chris Flanigan appears to be a domestic terrorist signaling his cell or partners to act in a mass casualty event. Hopefully @NYPDCT @FBI @DHSgov act quickly to stop him," tweeted a user.
"Chris Flanigan a teacher at Coney island prep advocated violence against police - instead of having a respectful discussion he pushed Marxist elitist ideology - we don't need this type of teachers indoctrinating our children re-educating our youth destroying morality& ethics," wrote another user.
Following the outrage, Coney Island Prep fired the teacher. In a statement issued on Sunday, Coney Island Prep CEO Leslie-Bernard Joseph said that they do not condone or promote violence of any sort. "As of this afternoon, Mr. Flanigan is no longer employed at Coney Island Prep. The teachers and staff of Coney Island Prep are public servants; and like all public servants we hold ourselves to a much higher standard,' the statement read.
