Black police officer in Ohio files charge of employment discrimination for alleged racist activities of former chief
Officer Keith Pool of the Sheffield Lake Police Division can also be petitioning a courtroom to order the division to show over information from the police chief’s laptop.
Pool, 57, made his first public assertion Thursday since video of the obvious harassment surfaced in July.
Chief Anthony Campo left the drive after video emerged displaying him placing a “Ku Klux Klan” label on Pool’s raincoat whereas Pool wasn’t trying.
Pool was the division’s first — and on the time of the incident, solely — Black police officer.
“Even after we watch it now I’m in disbelief that this occurred,” Pool stated at a digital information convention Thursday. “It was so demeaning that within the second I simply did not know react to it. I felt like I might been hit with a sledgehammer.”
“Chief Campo thought that placing the phrases Ku Klux Klan — a sign– on my rain jacket, after which sporting the Ku Klux Klan hat, was one thing of a joke,” Pool stated. “Even worse he informed different officers to go have a look at what he did. I’d have quite at that time for him to have hit me in my face.”
“It was offensive and humiliating, and past something I’ve ever skilled in my complete profession,” Pool added
Pool stated the incident made him consider a narrative informed to him by his late great-grandmother, about his great-uncle who had been killed by the Klan.
Concurrent together with his public look, attorneys for Pool introduced two authorized filings Thursday afternoon.
The primary, a office discrimination cost filed with Ohio’s Civil Rights Fee, alleges that Campo interfered with Pool’s hiring, utilizing the n-word to check with him within the course of.
The cost of discrimination alleges that after Pool’s hiring, Campo created a number of photographs directed at Pool that performed on racial stereotypes. These photographs have been allegedly made on Campo’s work laptop and have been printed and posted on the division’s bulletin board.
The submitting signifies that Pool is requesting an investigation performed by the Fee, a step required by state legislation earlier than submitting an employment discrimination lawsuit in courtroom.
Within the submitting, Pool additionally alleges a sample of discriminatory conduct, together with offensive photographs or statements at different members of the drive. One such picture allegedly included the face of the division’s sole Latino officer superimposed onto the label of a bottle of scorching sauce.
A second submitting within the Supreme Courtroom of Ohio seeks to compel the Metropolis of Sheffield Lake to adjust to a information request in search of Campo’s disciplinary historical past in addition to photographs and paperwork created on his department-issued laptop.
CNN has made a number of makes an attempt to achieve the Metropolis of Sheffield Lake however the metropolis didn’t reply to requests for remark.
