Kristen Bell Faces Backlash Following Her Photo With Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputies

When actress Kristen Bell appeared in a recent photo with deputies from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department on their Instagram page, her fans were not super thrilled about it. In fact, they thought it was kind of contradictory to her beliefs that she’s touted in the past.

In one of the two photos, Bell has her arms around the deputies, smiling ear to ear. In the other, she’s showing a thumbs up sign and posing with another deputy.

“Today, we had the absolute pleasure of meeting @KristenBell, who was hands down, the kindest human ever. There truly never is a dull moment at Lancaster!” the caption on the photos read.

So what did the fans have issues with? According to the Los Angeles Times, the LA department contains several gang-like groups who were “accused of glorifying violence and whose members have cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in legal payouts.” Additionally, there have been claims of racism among the department. The photo made fans feel like those were things Bell supports.

 

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However, Bell and her husband Dax Shepard are big Black Lives Matter supporters, and have talked publicly about raising their children to be anti-racism, and understand that color doesn’t matter. In fact, Bell is even the coauthor of the best-selling book “The World Needs More Purple People,” a raved-about book that helps children understand the differences among people and how to find common ground.

People thought posing with the deputies was hypocritical—and many were vocal about it on their own social media accounts. Here are a few comments she received below:

Bell hasn’t yet commented on the backlash yet.

What do you think—are these photos offensive to you, or undeserving of all the hate? We’d love to hear your opinion on this!