Georgia

UPDATE: West Georgia police chief resigns, officer fired after bodycam video shows them using racial slurs

HAMILTON, Ga. — A west Georgia police chief has resigned and an officer has resigned after body camera video shows them making racist comments ahead of a Black Lives Matter protest last year.

According to the Assistant to Hamilton Mayor Julie Brown, Chief Gene Allmond and Patrolman John Brooks have both been removed from their positions with the Hamilton Police Department. Chief Allmond reportedly resigned, while Patrolman Brooks was terminated, WTVM in Columbus reported.

The footage was obtained by WTVM-TV in Columbus after a city official there was made aware of the it.

The video shows Allmond and Brooks having a conversation in front of the police department, one smoking a cigarette. It appears they are unaware that the officer’s body camera was recording.

Both men can be heard using the N-word throughout the conversation, and the police chief talked about with whom he would rather have sex with, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms or voting rights activist Stacey Abrams.

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“It was disgusting. I had to leave the room,” Hamilton Mayor Pro-Tem Ransom Farley said.

As the conversation went on, the men then moved onto the topic of slavery.

“For the most part, it seems to me like they furnished them a house to live in. 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 don’t have to f***ing work,” one of the men said on the video.

WTVM said after viewing the video, it took city leaders about an hour and a half to take action, letting the chief and the officer know they would be fired if they did not resign.

“It was determined that the two officers involved needed to no longer work for the City of Hamilton,” city attorney Ron Iddins told the TV station.

Farley stumbled upon the video and brought it the attention of other city officials.

“A bodycam that was used by the city was being inspected because we had been informed that the bodycam did not work. But when it was looked at, it was determined that the bodycam actually had full memory of video,” Iddins told the TV station.

Allmond resigned on Monday. WTVM said Brooks was instructed to turn in his gear by Wednesday. He did not do that, according to Iddins, so Brooks was terminated.

WTVM contacted both men for comment on this story, but they declined to be interviewed.