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After a weekend incident at a local bar, police in Columbia, South Carolina announced Monday the termination of a police officer who used racial slurs against customers.
On Saturday, Sergeant Chad Walker was enforcing South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster's executive order calling for an 11 p.m. stop on bars serving alcohol. As patrons were leaving the Five Points establishment, one allegedly referred to Walker as a "f****ing pig." Another individual exiting the bar called Walker a "n*****r." Walker took offense to the epithets and repeated the N-word at least twice. The incident, which was recorded on both cell phone video and Walker's body camera, was released to social media. Walker was suspended from the Columbia Police Department after the incident. After an internal investigation, Walker was released from the force.
"We will continue to hold each other to the professional, ethical, and moral standards expected by our citizens and place the highest priority on maintaining public trust," Chief W.H. 'Skip' Holbrook said in a Monday statement. "As I've stated before, when setbacks occur and mistakes are made, we must be willing to acknowledge them, fix them, learn from them, and continue to move forward together."
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin tweeted Sunday that he was "thankful" to Chief Holbrook "for his swift, decisive response" concerning the situation.
Newsweek reached out to Governor McMaster's office for comment.
Police officers have been under scrutiny for actions perceived as racist in the wake of multiple protests across the U.S. against systemic racism in police culture. Demonstrations began after the May death of George Floyd who died while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers. While attempting to place Floyd under arrest, eyewitness video caught former officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck. Floyd could be heard on the video telling the police, "I can't breathe." All four of the officers involved with Floyd's death were fired from the Minneapolis Police Department.
In June, three officers on the Wilmington, North Carolina Police Department were fired after a recording of them making threatening comments against Black people was discovered by officials.
One officer was caught saying that he wanted there to be a new civil war in order to wipe Black people "off the [expletive deleted] map. That'll put them back about four or five generations."
Wilmington police said the conversation was captured on tape due to an "accidental activation" of a recording device.
"When I first learned of the conversations, I was shocked, saddened and disgusted," said Wilmington Police Chief Donny Williams. "There is no place for this behavior in our agency or our city and it will not be tolerated."
Some advocacy groups, such as Black Lives Matter, have called for a nationwide defunding of police forces. When a police department is defunded, money originally earmarked for a police budget would be redirected to underserved communities.
President Donald Trump said in June that his administration would not allow the police to be defunded. "When you hear 'defund the police,' you are probably saying it's a foreign language, right?" Trump said during a visit to U.S. Southern Command in Doral, Florida.
"So just a terrible thing, but I assume this is going to be a fad," Trump added. "We'll call it a fad."
