Hamilton police chief, officer asked to resign following racist video
Published 4:21 pm Monday, February 1, 2021
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
HAMILTON, Ga. (AP) — The police chief in a west Georgia city has resigned and an officer was terminated after footage from a body camera was discovered that shows the two making racist comments, a news station reported.
News outlets report that the Hamilton City Council asked for the resignation of Chief Gene Allmond and Sgt. John Brooks on Jan. 25. The recording was made hours before a Black Lives Matter march in Hamilton in June.
A part-time city employee found the footage while checking if the body camera was functional and brought it to the attention of the mayor’s office.
The video shows the two using racial slurs, speaking negatively about Blacks and about slavery, among other things.
According to WRBL, city attorney Ron Iddins said the footage “speaks for itself.”
A failure by the city to take action “would have been inexplicable,” he said. “It had to be done.”
Reaction from the city’s mayor was similar in sentiment.
“We wanted them off the force because we don’t want that kind of ugliness here in Hamilton,” Mayor Julie Brown said.
“The whole country needs more unity, we need to heal, so we didn’t want anything stopping that,” Brown said.