Georgia police chief, patrolmen ousted after video laced with racial slurs from BLM protests surfaces

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A police chief and patrolman in Hamilton, Ga., are no longer in their positions after body-camera footage laced with racial epithets and profanity surfaced of them discussing protests that broke out over the summer following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Chief of Police Gene Allmond resigned from the Hamilton Police Department last week, while Patrolman John Brooks was terminated, Buddy Walker, the assistant to Hamilton Mayor Julie Brown, confirmed to Fox News Monday.

The body-camera footage provided to Fox News appeared to show that the men were standing outside the Hamilton Police Department building. Walker said the video was recorded in June as Allmond and Brooks were getting ready to respond to a Black Lives Matter rally at Town Square. The small event reportedly remained peaceful. 

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In the video, Allmond and John Brooks discussed the fatal police shooting of Rayshard Brooks, a Black man who first pointed a Taser at officers outside a Wendy’s restaurant in Atlanta, as well as the violent demonstrations that ensued afterward that left the building burned to the ground.

One of the men, heard off-camera, used the N-word to describe Rayshard Brooks as well as Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. He also mentioned Stacey Abrams. The other remarked that his family never owned slaves before suggesting the Black population is given food and “they don’t want to work.”

A screenshot of the June body-camera footage. (City of Hamilton)

“We wanted them off the force because we don’t want that kind of ugliness here in Hamilton,” Mayor Brown said to WRBL. “Race, I don’t think has been an issue here. At least it hasn’t been in the 37 years I’ve been here, and we just didn’t want that, especially now in this day and age we want more unity. The whole country needs more unity, we need to heal, so we didn’t want anything stopping that.”

Walker told Fox News that Patrolman Brooks was questioned during a City Council meeting why officers were not wearing body-cameras and he responded that they were not functioning properly. The cameras were then handed over to the city, and a city employee testing one device found there was data stored on it. 

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Exactly one week ago, on Jan. 25, the employee alerted Walker, who then viewed the footage with Mayor Pro Tem Farley in his office. They then brought the video to the attention of the mayor, city council and City Attorney Ron Iddins, Walker said. 

The police department’s voicemail box was not set up and accepting messages when Fox News attempted to reach out via phone call on Monday. 

Iddins said no one on the council could watch the footage in its entirety because of “how ugly it gets.”

“After reviewing the footage, I think it speaks for itself. The city, its failure to take action at that point and time would have been inexplicable,” Iddins said to WRBL. “It had to be done.”

Separate body-camera footage depicting the shooting of Rayshard Brooks showed Atlanta police officers Garrett Rolfe and Devin Brosnan appeared to have a calm conversation for over 40 minutes with Brooks, who allegedly was intoxicated and had fallen asleep behind the wheel at the drive-thru.

When police tried to handcuff him, a struggle ensued and Brooks grabbed an officer’s Taser and pointed it in their direction. That’s when video showed Rolfe shot him. Both officers have been charged in Brooks’ death. Demonstrators set fire to the Wendy’s in the aftermath.

Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned and Rolfe was terminated after the incident.

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Last week, the newly elected Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis requested in a letter to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr that the case against Rolfe be transferred to a different prosecutor, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Sunday would have been Rayshard Brooks’ 28th birthday, and family released balloons in his memory at the location of the old Wendy’s, WSB-TV reported.

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