The president of the union representing police officers demanded the firing of a professor at a New York City criminal justice college over a tweet that said: "it’s a privilege to teach future dead cops.”
John Jay College of Criminal Justice adjunct economics professor Michael Isaacson has already been suspended, college president Karol Mason said.
Isaacson was put on administrative leave out of concern for the safety of students, faculty and staff. The college said he would remain on leave until it finishes an internal review.
Patrick J. Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said Issacson "needs to be fired immediately."
The tweet, sent on Aug. 23 under the handle @vulgareconomics, stated "Some of y’all might think it sucks being an anti-fascist teaching at John Jay College but I think it’s a privilege to teach future dead cops" and brought immediate condemnation from across the social network.
It even drew the ire of Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O’Neill — a John Jay graduate.
“As a 2x grad there, I know Michael Isaacson's reprehensible values don't represent @JohnJayCollege, #NYC, #NYPD or families of murdered cops,” O’Neill wrote.
Isaacson, using another Twitter account, wrote Friday morning that he doesn’t believe in the institution of policing, saying it "operates at the behest of a state that increasingly represents the weapons and prison industry rather than the public they’re supposed to serve."
"I illuminate this fact in my classes in the hopes that my students are able to choose a career path that does not put them in the position of having to act as an agent of that institution," he said.
NBC reached out to Isaacson seeking comment after his suspension. In a statement to the Daily News on Friday, he said his biggest regret was "putting my students and the John Jay faculty at risk."