Sandy MaloneHamilton, GA – The police chief of Hamilton resigned in disgrace and one of his officers was fired after bodycam video was discovered that showed them using racial slurs and having a “horrifying” conversation about slavery and now the district attorney wants to charge both men (video below).
Buddy Walker, assistant to Hamilton Mayor Julie Brown, said the conversation held between the two law enforcement officers took place before a June 2020 Black Lives Matter rally was discovered after officers told city leaders they weren’t wearing their bodycams because they didn’t work, NBC News reported.
Walker said the problem was investigated and it turned out the cameras were just full.
A city employee went through the footage to make sure that there wasn’t anything important left on it before it was all deleted, NBC News reported.
That’s when the footage of the conversation between now-former Hamilton Police Chief Gene Allmond and Hamilton Police Officer John Brooks came to light.
The city employee notified Mayor Pro Tempore Ransom Farley, who oversees the Hamilton Police Department, of what he had found, NBC News reported.
Farley and Walker watched the video together on Jan. 25.
Walker said that Farley, who is black, had an especially strong response to the offensive video and the “reaction from him was enough to break your heart,” NBC News reported.
“We watched the first portion, and he got up and left the room until he could calm down, and we watched the rest of it,” Walker said.
The video began with Chief Allmond and Officer Brooks having a conversation about what was said on FOX News about the fatal officer-involved shooting of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta after he stole an officer’s Taser and tried to shoot him with it.
“What they’re saying now is, ‘Well, they didn’t have to shoot him, it’s just a Taser,'” Officer Brooks told the police chief in the video. “Then how come when you tase a f—ing n—a, it’s like you done killed him 27 times?”
He went on to explain that shooting Brooks was justified because firing a Taser at an officer is an aggravated assault, the video showed.
“The mayor up there, she’s already fired the officer … without a hearing,” Officer Brooks added, referring to Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. “She’s pushing real hard. They say she’s now the front-runner to be Joe Biden’s vice presidential candidate.”
“You’re kidding,” Chief Allmond replied in the video.
Then Officer Brooks opined that he would rather “f—k the mayor than than Stacey Abrams.”
“Yes, sir,” Chief Allmond agreed in the video.
At that point, the dispatcher attempted to send the men to respond to a woman with a gun call, but Officer Brooks responded the call was outside the city of Hamilton.
So Chief Allmond called the dispatcher on his cell phone and told her that he and Officer Brooks were going to be tied up with the Black Lives Matter protest, the video showed.
Then the chief began muttering to Officer Brooks about Black Lives Matter protests in general.
“Protests, son of a b—h. (Unintelligible) — these f–king people,” Chief Allmond said. “I didn’t own no slaves, my folks didn’t own no slaves. What are we talking about? Two hundred f–king years ago?”
Officer Brooks told Chief Allmond that he had researched his own family and found evidence they were slave owners, the video showed.
“I’m sure there were a lot of them mistreated; I don’t have any doubt about that,” Chief Allmond told Officer Brooks. “But 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 them all those things, and they don’t have to f–king work,” the police chief added.
Hamilton City Attorney Ron Iddins said that once he and the mayor had seen the video, Chief Allmond and Officer Brooks were given the option to resign or be fired, NBC News reported.
Iddins said that Officer Brooks asked to view the footage and then after he saw it, he chose to resign.
“He was instructed to turn in his city equipment and pick up his personal belongings Tuesday morning. He did not. Therefore, on Wednesday he was terminated,” the city attorney explained.
Chief Allmond resigned the next morning, NBC News reported.
“The next morning we found his equipment and resignation letter taped to the computer monitor in the police station,” Iddins said.
He said that neither now-former Chief Allmond nor now-former Officer Brooks believed the bodycam was working, NBC News reported.
Walker said that former Officer Brooks tried to apologize to Farley but Farley did not accept it.
“This was just heartbreaking for him,” Walker said. “I’m 74 years old — I grew up in the South. You know, I’ve heard a lot in my life, but I can honestly say without a doubt it was the most unbelievable and horrifying video that I really think that I have seen.”
“It’s like it’s a nightmare, honestly,” he added, according to NBC News.
Neither the former police chief nor the former officer had any official complaints against them when they resigned, but Walker said anonymous complaints against both of the former law enforcement officers have rolled in since the video surfaced.
On Tuesday, Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Mark Jones announced he intended to charge both former Chief Allmond and former Officer Brooks with violating their oaths of office, WTVM reported.
Watch the recovered video here below. WARNING – Graphic Content and Obscene Language:
Holly Matkin
