After being recorded on camera threatening to dismiss his Black police officers, the sheriff of Columbus County, North Carolina, resigned.
“I’m done with it. I’m tired of these Black fools,” according to a tape acquired by NBC station WECT, retired sheriff Jody Greene. “I’m going to perform a little housecleaning and move on. And that’s where we’ll begin.”
According to the neighborhood news source WITN, Greene resigned after a State Bureau of Inquiry investigation.
The tape, which WECT was able to secure, was a recording of a discussion between Black men Melvin Campbell and Jason Soles, who were both serving as captains, in February 2019.
According to WECT, Soles was running against Greene in the race for Columbus County Sheriff this year.
After allegations that Greene did not reside in Columbus County and that he was sworn in before of the state certifying the election results, the outlet reports that the results were challenged.
Soles was chosen to serve as acting sheriff while these concerns were being looked into by election authorities, according to WECT.
According to WECT, Greene would contact Soles often late at night just after his visit.
Soles told the publication that he began recording the talks following a phone contact with Greene during which the latter declared his hatred towards Black Democrats.
Greene reportedly sought to discover who in the department was in contact with his rivals during the race, according to WECT.
“It’s going to be a brand-new day tomorrow. Because I’m still the motherf**king sheriff, I’ll walk up and yell at every goddamn person. They Black bastards, f**k them. Do they believe I’m afraid? They’re naive, “In the audio that WECT received, Greene remarked.
“I’m at a loss about how to proceed. So it is just the time to purge them. Somewhere in there, a snitch is spilling the beans on what we are doing. I’m not going to accept it. I won’t be consuming it.”
In the tape that WECT was able to get, Greene threatened to terminate anybody who was connected to his political adversaries.
“We’ll f**king hack off the snake’s head. Period. Furthermore, Lewis Hatcher has never ventured to be as large a serpent as Melvin Campbell. Every Black person I know ought to be fired right now because he’s a snake,” Greene said.
According to Soles, who was running for Sheriff against Greene before Greene quit, he gave the video to the County Commissioners while Greene was in office.
Buddy Byrd, a commissioner for Columbus County who was the only one to follow up with Soles, told the TV station WECT that without the backing of his other commissioners—whom he said supported Greene—nothing could be done.
According to WECT, Soles would also meet with an agent from the States Bureau of Inquiry, who advised him to maintain recording the discussions until the District Attorney or Attorney General opened a formal investigation.
The audio was brought to his attention for the first time on Monday, according to Columbus County Attorney Jon David, who said that although Greene’s remarks were not unlawful, they did raise questions about bias policing.
In a statement, Greene claimed that Soles changed the phone recording to further his political cause.
Greene claimed in the statement that “the video has been manipulated to provide Jason Soles’ audience a distorted and false impression Solely meant to assist his candidacy.” “The phone call lasted longer than 8 minutes, as shown on the screen. Jason only sent WECT 6 minutes of footage, which suggests that the video has been changed.”
Greene claimed in the statement that he believed Jason’s intention with the audio was to “further stoke racial discord” and to “exploit the racial divide to advance his own goal of a political run for government.”
According to his statement, Greene denied having any racist intentions or behaviors throughout the phone call that was recorded.
“I accept that there were racial tensions during the certification of the 2018 election and that the two political parties were referred to as black and white by the media and certain community people,” Greene stated.