Police chief loses job after leaving KKK note for Black officer, Ohio mayor says
An Ohio police chief has lost his job after leaving a racist note for a Black officer, media outlets reported.
Sheffield Lake Mayor Dennis Bring said Police Chief Anthony Campo put a note with the words “Ku Klux Klan” on the officer’s desk on Friday, Cleveland.com reported.
The news outlet obtained surveillance video of the chief draping a hooded, yellow raincoat over the desk and putting a piece of paper on top.
Soon after, the officer walked into the room and saw the note, the video shows.
Bring told WKYC he put the police chief on administrative leave after learning about the note and fired Campo after watching the video.
In a phone interview, Campo said he wasn’t fired but rather retired, WKYC reported. He said he respected the Black officer and described the incident as “overblown” and part of a joke, the news outlet reported.
Bring said the police chief intended to retire this month, WOIO reported.
Campo was at the department for 33 years and served as police chief the previous eight, Cleveland.com reported. The Black officer was hired nine months ago, according to the news outlet.
Bring told Cleveland.com he met with the officer to apologize and they cried for 10 minutes before they could speak.
“My view of it is that it was an extremely poor decision of somebody who thought this was a complete joke and didn’t have the understanding of the magnitude of what he has done,” Bring told WOIO.
Sheffield Lake is a city of 9,000 located 25 miles west of Cleveland.
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