Police officials say they quit over safety concerns, not because of black female mayor
theGRIO REPORT - Two former Missouri police officers have recently come forward to explain why several police officers and officials resigned following the election of Tyus Byrd, their town's first black woman mayor.
Two former Missouri police officers have recently come forward to explain why several police officers and officials resigned following the election of Tyus Byrd, their town’s first black woman mayor.
Trish Cohen, Parma, Missouri’s former police chief, and Rich Medley, former assistant police chief, claims that race did not play a factor in their decision to leave but that they did not feel safe having an “anti police” mayor.
“You can’t have an anti-police mayor, and that’s the way she made me feel,” Cohen told NBC News.
Watch the full interview with the former police officers below:
“My decision was not, did not, come lightly. At all,” Cohen continued. “It has nothing to do with race. If it had anything to do with race, I’d done never went to work in the town.”
Medley added, “From the moment [Byrd] announced her candidacy, she never approached any of us, never advised us what her plans were or anything. Never asked us to stay or told us that the moment she took office that we weren’t going to have a job.”
“We were in the dark on it, and then in hearing from her supporters that she was going to fire all of us, might as well start looking for something else,” said Medley.
Following Byrd’s election win, 11 city workers and officials quit. Byrd, in discussing the resignations, also stated that she did not believe race played a role but was confused about why the officers feared for their safety.
“I don’t understand. I never said anything about cleaning house,” she said.
In an interview after the resignations were announced, Byrd also said, “I wish we could have sat down and came to whatever the reasons were, that maybe we could have came to some type of agreement and understanding.”
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