Police department sparks outrage after ‘decorating’ Christmas tree with mugshots

The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office in Alabama has left a lot of people raging after announcing how they plan to spend the festive season.  

In what are already tense times for relations between US citizens and the police force, many were disgusted with their decision to plaster the office Christmas tree with mugshots of people that have been arrested or are wanted for crimes in the area.

To make matters worse, the tree is topped off with a pair of spare inmate sandals.

To further the unsavoury move, the department are also presenting a number of ‘special christmas offers’ to ‘thugs’. These include but are not limited to a new ‘holiday jumpsuit’ and matching flip flops.

It’s unclear whether the department are being serious or not, but many people have taken it as such. The post was commented on almost 8,000 times and made national news in the US.

A spokesperson for the force resisted the backlash insisting: ‘It's a good thing. It's a good thing in a community that they have taken these career criminals off the streets. We were thanking them and showing the results of Thug Thursday.’

‘It’s funny and does draw attention, and that is why we share it.’

This mindset can’t have lasted long - the post has since been deleted. It’s yet to be seen whether they try to rectify it.

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