Racist conversation between Georgia police chief and officer found on body camera footage

A police chief and a patrolman from a small city in Georgia are no longer working for the department after the duo were caught on bodycamera video having an extremely racist conversation.  

The conversation happened in June and involved Hamilton Police Chief Gene Allmond and Officer John Brooks.  

According to NBC News, the conversation revolved around the fatal shooing of a Black man by a police officer and occurred shortly before a Black Lives Matter rally in the city.

In the video, Mr Brooks repeats a comment he heard from Fox News commenter Dan Bongino, claiming the man tried to grab a police officer's stun gun and use it against him.  

"What they're saying now is, 'Well they didn't have to shoot him, it's just a Taser,'" Mr Brooks said, mocking the argument. "Then how come when you tase a f****** n***** it's like you done killed him 27 times?"

The two men then complain that Stacey Abrams, a Black former Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia who was widely credited for driving the voter turnout that helped Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock oust incumbent Republicans last month, was then being considered by Joe Biden for vice president.  

Later, the men address the issue of protesters.  

"Protests – these f****** people," Mr Allmond said. "I didn't own no slaves, my folks didn't own no slaves. What are we talking about 200 f****** years ago?"

Mr Brooks responds by saying he did genealogical research and found that his family did own slaves. Mr Allmond laughed at the revelation before reasoning that the slaves who were kidnapped, trafficked, and sold into generational servitude actually had it pretty good.  

"I know there were a lot of them mistreated; I don’t have any doubt about that. 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****** work," Mr Allmond said. "And now, we give them all those things, and they don’t have to f****** work."

The footage was discovered when the police department was questioned by Hamilton city officials about why they were not wearing their body cameras.  

The department said the cameras were broken, but in reality the devices had reached their storage limits. A city worker tasked with clearing out the stored data decided to watch the footage to ensure nothing important was lost, and found the conversation.  

After the footage was discovered, the Mayor Pro Tem Ransom Farley, who is Black and oversees the police, and Buddy Walker, the mayor's assistant, watched the footage.  

According to Mr Walker, Mr Farley had to leave the room midway through the footage to calm down.  

Mr Walker, who said he has been friends with Mr Farley for years, said the "reaction from him was enough to break your heart."

"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," he said.  

After the mayor and the city attorney saw the video, Mr Allmond and Mr Brooks were given the option to resign.  

Mr Brooks resigned after watching the footage, but was later terminated because he did not remove his personal items from the city's premises.  

Mr Allmond chose to resign. The morning after he was given the ultimatum, city officials found his city equipment and a resignation letter taped on a computer monitor.

Mr 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."