Political

Medford Police Union President, Officer Harold MacGilvray, Apologizes For Posing In Hillary Arrest Photo

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Medford Police Officer Harold MacGilvray took a moment to jokingly pose with somebody in a costume.

Medford Police Officer Harold MacGilvray took a moment to jokingly pose with somebody in a costume.

Medford Police Union President, Officer Harold MacGilvray, Apologizes For Posing In Hillary Arrest Photo

Medford, MA – Officer Harold MacGilvray, who jokingly posed in a photograph of Hillary Clinton being arrested, made an apology after the photo went viral on social media.

Officer Harold MacGilvray, who is the president of the Medford Police Patrolman’s Association, posted in a picture of a person in a Hillary Clinton costume where she was in an orange jail jumpsuit. The photo, which is an obvious joke, quickly went viral after it was posted on the Medford police union’s Facebook page. Nonetheless, Officer Harold MacGilvray offered an apology to all those who got their little feelings hurt after having to look at the photograph of Hillary Clinton in handcuffs.

Officer Harold MacGilvray wrote an email to the Boston Globe in which he said in part:

 “These were Halloween costumes. It was meant totally as a joke.”

and

“I apologize if this offended anyone in any way. I never expected this sort of reaction. It was poor judgment on my part.”

The photograph, which first appeared on the police union’s Facebook page, has since been taken down, but it’s still circulating over various social media platforms and drawing an abundance of interaction from both sides of the political spectrum.

Playing along with the joke, Al Baldasaro, who is a Republican State Representative from New Hampshire, tweeted the photograph to the Hillary Clinton Campaign with the comment:

Medford MA Police Department Union President Harold MacGilveray on the right, found @HillaryClinton & arrested her.

The impromptu photograph was taken at the Haines Square Annual Fall Festival where lots of people of all ages were wearing Halloween costumes and enjoying all the fun and games at the event. Officer MacGilvray and other officers were at the event making sure the public was safe while they enjoyed themselves; at some point someone in the Hillary Clinton costume approached the officers for the spontaneous and playful photograph. Officer MacGilvray also said this photograph was “absolutely not” taken as a way of making any type of political statement.

Often times police officers are inserted into the day to day lives of people in the public in ways that are far less than formal, as in issuing a ticket, or making an arrest. There are many other casual interactions between police officers and the public where, as in this case, a citizen approached the officers in a joking way, and they playfully engaged the citizen in the humor of the moment. This type of interaction shows the human side of police officers for which the public often times forgets, mainly because peoples’ interactions with police are often times for negative reasons.

In this case, a couple of seconds of spontaneous humor was captured in a photograph and it has one segment of the population in an uproar, and another segment laughing along with the humor. I suppose the officers could have been uptight and played into the misguided perception that the anti-police segment of the population is always whining about.

What do you think about this incident? Let us know in the comment below or on our Facebook page because we would really like to hear how you feel about this photograph.

Follow Chief Habanero on Twitter @texashabanero or on Facebook.

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