The fire chief for the town of Lyons resigned on Tuesday after scrutiny of his Facebook comment that appeared to endorse the harsh policing tactics of the Civil Rights Movement for use on current racial justice protesters.

CPR reports that in late May, JJ Hoffman responded to a Facebook post that argued for using fire hoses to wash “human trash into the gutter” by saying, “I definitely would open up our high pressure bumper turret and have some fun”.

Hoffman apologized for the comment. “I am not trying to belittle history. I am upset that the protesting in Denver turned into riots,” he wrote. He pointed out the original post was not public and that ever since a screenshot of the post had circulated, people came to his page “looking for a fight.”

On June 1, Hoffman wrote a letter to the Lyons Fire Protection District and the community saying that the post “reflected poorly on the district and me, and I regret that. I am sorry.”

The district’s board of directors in response said that it would formally reprimand the chief, but that they still had confidence in him. On Tuesday, Hoffman resigned.

“A person with such cavalier disregard to the facts of history – a history of fire hoses and police dogs used to deter righteous, youthful protesters in the ’60s civil rights movement – does not deserve to serve in a public position,” said Rosemary Lytle, the president of the NAACP Rocky Mountain Area State Conference, according to CPR.

The news of Hoffman’s departure comes one week after the Denver Police Department fired an officer for his social media comments – in that case, an Instagram post of himself and other officers with the caption “Let’s start a riot.”