BAY HARBOR ISLANDS, Fla. – A South Florida police corporal who is the husband of a commissioner in a nearby city has been suspended because of his social media posts appearing to support the controversial views of his wife.
Bay Harbor Islands Police Department Cpl. Pablo Lima has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation.
“The content of the social media posts that were brought to our attention are not consistent with our town’s values and policies,” Town Manager J.C. Jimenez said in a statement Thursday.
Lima is the husband of Hallandale Beach Commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub, whose city passed a resolution last year condemning her comments after she said a Muslim congresswoman could “become a martyr and blow up Capitol Hill.”
According to the Miami Herald, shortly after the vote to condemn his wife, Lima shared a story on his Facebook page about it and proceeded to “like” five comments showing support for Lima-Taub. One comment included the line: “This [piece of s---] took her oath on the Koran.”
The post has since been removed.
“There isn’t anything racist or xenophobic about my husband,” Lima-Taub told Local 10 News reporter Andrew Perez on Friday. “The only thing my husband is guilty of is being supportive.”
According to the Bay Harbor Islands Police Department’s social media policy, personnel are prohibited from speech that “ridicules, maligns, disparages or otherwise expresses bias against any gender, race, religion or any protected class of individuals.”
In a lengthy Facebook post, Lima-Taub claimed her husband, who recently submitted an application to be considered for the town’s next police chief, did nothing wrong.
“Let’s be clear: My husband only liked comments that were in defense of me not being a xenophobe, racist or Islamaphobe,” she wrote. “He never posted anything of any nature related to race, religion or the like.”
Lima-Taub went on to say that her husband “always does the right thing and he was liking comments that reiterated support of me not being a racist, which he now is being punished and suspended for.”
She then applauded her husband and vowed to “work diligently to uncover the trails, which I am sure will lead to a lobbyist who brings nothing but misery and corruption to every South Florida city he touches!”