A Georgia police officer is being fired after going on a racist rant against an inmate on suicide watch.
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Gregory Hubert Brown was placed on administrative leave without pay after he called a suicidal inmate at the Clayton County Jail a “crazy N-word,” Sheriff Victor Hill said in a statement over the weekend. The incident occurred in front of other inmates and a correctional officer.
Hill said that Brown would be fired within the next 72 hours in compliance with civic service guidelines.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Monday that this is the third time in a decade that Brown is being removed from his duties. In 2010, Standards and Training Council records showed that Brown was let go from the Coweta County Jail after two years. The Clayton County Sheriff’s Office hired him in 2011 but he was fired from his position as a jail officer. The details of his previous terminations were not immediately available.
Brown’s firing is the second one to take place at Clayton County Sheriff’s Office in the past month. As theGrio reported, a deputy lost his job in early September for “excessive use of force,” against a Black man.
Roderick Walker and his girlfriend dropped off a rental car and asked for a quick ride down the street, according to attorney Shean Williams. The driver of the car was then allegedly pulled over for a broken taillight and Walker, 26, was asked for his identification and it was demanded that he get out the car. The situation escalated and a viral video shows Walker pinned to the ground and repeatedly punched in the head. He suffered a swollen eye.
Walker was arrested for multiple counts of obstruction and battery, charges that his attorney said were bogus.
“Mr. Walker would not be in jail if it were not for this unlawful arrest that violated his legal and constitutional rights,” Williams said during a news conference.
Walker’s counsel also rebuffed the claims made by the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office that there was cause to question him and keep him in custody based on a preexisting warrant for cruelty to children and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
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“The reason he is in jail is because of the stop in Clayton County that led to him being brutally assaulted by the officer,” Walker’s attorney, Torris Butterfield, told ABC News. “Although there may have been a warrant outstanding for him, he wasn’t arrested for any kind of warrant.”
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