Police chief used racial slurs ahead of Black Lives Matter protest in Georgia, video shows

Tanasia Kenney

A west Georgia police chief and his patrolman seemingly had no idea their body cameras were rolling as they launched into a racist, profanity-laden conversation ahead of a Black Lives Matter protest last summer, footage shows.

Now both men are out of a job.

Chief Gene Allmond resigned from the Hamilton Police Department last week after city officials said he was recorded using racial slurs and making derogatory remarks about Black Americans, WTVM reported. John Brooks, a patrolman with the department, was later terminated, city officials confirmed to the station.

The footage surfaced early last week after a city official checked that the body cameras were working properly and discovered the recording before reporting it to the mayor’s assistant, according to WRBL.

“After reviewing the footage, I think it speaks for itself,” City Attorney Ron Iddins said, according to the news station. “The city, it’s failure to take action at that point and time would have been inexplicable. It had to be done.”

In the 30-minute clip, Allmond and Brooks repeatedly use racial epithets while discussing the police shooting of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta. Brooks, 27, was shot and killed by an Atlanta police officer outside of a Wendy’s restaurant on June 12, a shooting that activists denounced as yet another example of racial injustice in our nation.

Over 90% of Black Lives Matter demonstrations this summer were peaceful, analysis shows

As officers tried to handcuff Brooks, a scuffle ensued and Georgia Bureau of Investigation officials say he stole a Taser and ran. Police have said Brooks pointed the Taser toward one of the officers before he was fatally shot.

“How come when you taze a [expletive] n----r, it’s like you done killed him 27 times?” John Brooks asks Allmond in the video, according to WRBL. “The guy’s running, he’s got the tazer in his hand, and you see him and he turns, and you see him fire the tazer at the officer?”

Their conversation unfolded hours before a pro-Black Lives March last June in Hamilton, about 30 miles northeast of Columbus.

At one point, the men begin discussing two prominent Black female politicians and which they would rather have sex with. Officials said Brooks is heard in the video telling his police chief, “If I had to [expletive] a n-----, I’d rather [expletive] the [Atlanta] Mayor [Keisha Lance Bottoms] than [former Georgia House of Representatives Minority Leader] Stacey Abrams.”

The two men also talked about slavery, during which Allmond acknowledged “a lot them [were] mistreated” but seemingly argued that slavery wasn’t that bad.

“For the most part, it seems to me like, they furnished them a house to live in, they furnished ’em clothes to put on their back, they furnished ’em food to put on their table, and all they had to do was [expletive] work,” the chief of police says, according to the video.

“And now we give ‘em all those things and they don’t have to [expletive] work,” Brooks replies.

After reviewing the video, city leaders said it took just 90 minutes for disciplinary action, WTVM reported.

Both Allmond and Brooks were informed they would be fired if they refused to resign, the news station reported.

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