Mississippi Police Chief Used Racist Slurs in 10 Text Threads After Appointment
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 22
Mississippi Police Chief Used Racist Slurs in 10 Text Threads After Appointment
2 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 22
Summary
More than a dozen racist slurs appeared in 10 private text conversations tied to Senatobia Police Chief Harold Vanderford, including messages sent after he took the job last fall.
The texts, obtained by Mississippi Today, Verite News and The New York Times, were provided by the recipient, and three other acquaintances said the phone number in the messages belonged to Vanderford.
One message said he was having a “racist moment,” and another said he “almost beat a nigger and white woman’s ass,” while a text sent three months before June’s Walmart shooting used a slur about a Mississippi State player.
The disclosure lands in a city already under scrutiny after police fatally shot 1-year-old Kohen Wiley in June and after aldermen had pushed out the previous chief over earlier policing controversies.