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In the small Oklahoma town of Achille, the town’s police chief has suddenly had to explain why for two years he has had a known white supremacist named Bart Alsook in its ranks.
“In the two years that I have known him, he has done nothing but contribute,” Achille Police Chief Christopher Watson told KXII-TV. “He was involved in some kind of group then, and wanted out and the only way he figured he could get out would be to move far away.”
Watson says he knew about Bart Alsbrook’s connections to white supremacist groups, but still hired him to be a reserve officer in the department. Alsbrook was briefly police chief in nearby Colbert, Okla. But was fired after he was exposed as a white supremacist.
According to the New York Daily News, Alsbrook was the Texas coordinator of a Skinhead group called Blood & Honor, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center calls an international coalition of racist skinhead gangs. Alsbrook’s name was also linked to two websites that sell media and memorabilia aimed at skinheads.
When initially confronted, he reportedly claimed that he was a victim of identity theft after skinheads stole his wallet at a concert in the 1990s.
Watson says Alsbrook wanted to leave the Skinhead groups he belonged to and claims he is trying to change his racist ways. Achille is a small town along the Texas Border which is majority white, but has a large Native American population.
Alsbrook says he’s declined repeated requests for an on-camera interview, because he didn’t “want [his] name associated with any hate ideology.”
Despite hiring a known skinhead, Watson says the Achille Police Department has zero tolerance for racism.
“None,” Watson said. “None, because that is an ignorant way of thinking. So there would be no tolerance of that.”