Police chief, officer in Georgia resign after video of racist comments surfaces
A police chief and an officer have been ousted from the department in Hamilton after video surfaced of the pair disparaging Black Lives Matter protesters in a conversation liberally sprinkled with racist epithets and logic.
In the video, Chief Gene Allmond, chief of the police department in Hamilton, Ga., and Patrolman John Brooks are chatting in front of the police department while one puffs on a cigarette. The two don’t seem to realize the body camera is on.
What ensued was an N-word-laced conversation, interspersed with speculation on whether they’d rather have sex with Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms or voting rights activist Stacey Abrams, reported WTVM-TV.
Allmond resigned and Brooks was fired, WTVM reported, citing Hamilton Mayor Julie Brown.
The footage was discovered after someone from another department went to use the cameras and found that the memory was full. They downloaded the contents and out came the information.
In addition the disparaging remarks was a mini-discussion about slavery, as well.
“For the most part, it seems to me like they furnished them a house to live in,” one of the men said. “They furnished them clothes to put on their back. They furnished them food to put on their table and all they had to do was f---ing work.”
“And now we give ‘em all those things and they don’t have to f---ing work,” said the other.
The two were serving in a city that is 30% Black, as The Root noted.
Hamilton Mayor Pro-Tem Ransom Farley was the official who drew attention to what he called the disgusting video, and it took the city just an hour and a half to determine what to do.
“I couldn’t — and I could at the same time — believe what I heard,” Farley, who is Black, told WTVM.
