New Hampshire’s racist and over-the-hill police commitioner packs it in!
A town police commissioner has resigned after he admitted using a racial slur to describe President Barack Obama, an official said Monday.
Robert Copeland, 82, resigned Sunday night from the post to which he was re-elected in March, Board of Selectmen Chair Linda Murray said, putting to rest a controversy that drew national attention and sparked impassioned debate in this resort town of 6,300 on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee.
…Copeland admitted using the slur, preceded by an obscenity, while he was at a restaurant in March. A resident, Jane O’Toole, overheard him and complained to town officials when she learned that Copeland was a police commissioner.
“I believe I did use the ‘N’ word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse,” Copeland wrote in the April email sent to the two other commissioners and forwarded to O’Toole. “For this, I do not apologize – he meets and exceeds my criteria for such.”
That defiance did not sit well with many in the town.
This is good, somebody so unabashedly prejudice and hateful should not hold ANY position in law enforcement. Justice should be blind, but this jerk is more concerned with irrelevant traits of people.
A handful of people at the meeting spoke on behalf of Copeland, saying he had a right to free speech. But the louder message came from those who wanted him out.
I’m really sick of idiots who don’t understand how rights work. Yes, he has the right to free speech, tho courts have ruled that public obscenity isn’t completely protected. Still he is NOT being charged with a crime, the people aren’t complaining about the words he said, just about the fact that somebody who would so openly say such things is the conditioner of police.
You do not have the right to hold a public office, and that is the issue here, not free speech.
Jamie Murray said she wasn’t surprised to hear racist comments since her biracial son has also faced taunts.
“It also gave me an understanding as to why the children think it’s OK,” she said Monday. “When you’re held in office, and you decide to become an elected official, you represent something higher than your own standards and your own things, and you need to stand up for the community in which you serve.”
Yep this is exactly my point!
Police Chief Stuart Chase said Copeland’s slur was “not indicative of the posture of this department. We treat everyone with dignity and respect.”
It sure isn’t since they demanded he leave. Now look at other departments who have stood behind disgusting, distasteful, and criminal officers. Those departments in effect DO stand behind that behavior!
Good on the people of Wolfeboro for kicking this trash to the curb!
