To be clear, I wasn't referring to the Doyle situation specifically. As others have rightly pointed out, if he chose to exert his power in a bully fashion, he got what he deserved.
Perception trumping facts is a much broader issue, but probably can be applied in his case.
IIRC, one player complained that Doyle told him he could "go back to the ghetto" if he didn't like the way things were, but someone observing that interaction said that Doyle told him he could go back to (whatever city he was from) and didn't use the word ghetto. The player perceived the phrase differently through the lens of someone who grew up in a poor oppressed environment, and assumed Doyle's implication was racist.
Was Doyle implying that due to subconscious bias, or, in a worst case scenario, as someone who is frankly racist? We'll never know, but either way, the facts of the statement took a back seat to the perception. That's a dangerous power right now, and akin to the witch hunts of the late 1600s - if a group of people perceived you as a witch, you were deemed a witch. Facts didn't matter.