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An LAPD officer suing her superiors used her big day to fire back at their orders demanding she refrain from posting pictures of guns to social media.
Toni McBride, whose Instagram account is private, posted a photo of herself holding a semiautomatic rifle alongside her husband to the platform last Thursday, in defiance of the department she claims discriminated against her based on her sex.
McBride's photos come just two days after she filed an amended complaint in her lawsuit against the department and Chief Michel Moore, claiming he blocked promotions for her after she refused to take down photos and videos containing guns and shooting competitions, according to The Los Angeles Times.
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Close up of a Los Angeles Police Officer Badge. (iStock)
The competitive shooter alleged in her pending suit that her superiors' requests to remove the photos contrasted with the treatment her male colleagues received.
The lawsuit maintains that male LAPD officers posted similar content frequently but received no retaliation.
The suit also claims that Moore threatened McBride's job with an ultimatum that she remove the photos and videos of her gun-related activity or lose her job.
"Chief Moore told Officer McBride that he wanted her to cease posting videos on social media," the lawsuit stated. "He said that Officer McBride needed to ‘choose between being an LAPD officer’ or posting social media videos."
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Toni McBride's lawsuit claims the police chief discriminated against her over photos and videos of firearms posted to her personal social media accounts. (iStock)
The city of Los Angeles moved to dismiss the suit last month, according to The Times.
"Plaintiff did not, in fact, cite to any post which she ever made which she contends actually constitutes a statement concerning a matter of ‘public concern,'" city attorney Keimer Raymond wrote in court documents.
"If the Court were to accept Plaintiff’s contention that any statement involving ‘gender’ and ‘guns’ is speech concerning a matter of ‘public concern’, then by way of example, photos of LAPD officers in bathing suits holding weapons would be statements of ‘public concern.’"
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LAPD Chief Michel Moore talks about the 2022 End-of-Year Homicide Report during a news conference at the Los Angeles Police Headquarters, March 28, 2023. (Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department for comment, but did not receive an immediate response.
McBride first entered the spotlight in 2020 when she was cleared of any wrongdoing after repeatedly shooting and killing 38-year-old suspect Daniel Hernandez for advancing toward her while wielding a box cutter.
She has over 100,000 Instagram followers.
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