A sheriff in Georgia who wanted to bring notorious anti-immigrant Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio’s methods to his jurisdiction has resigned following a scandal over racist text messages.
The Newnan Times-Herald reports:
Embattled Grantville Police Chief Doug Jordan has officially resigned.
On Friday Jordan was suspended upon allegations of several text messages that were allegedly sent by Jordan to Grantville police officers which contained derogatory language – specifically the “N-word,” according to Grantville Mayor Jim Sells.
“When we approached the chief in regards to these allegations, he did not deny them and accepted some culpability,” Sells said. “Following this revelation, he was immediately placed on suspension.”
…
Grantville City Council was originally slated to discuss the reasons of the suspension and review their options in regards to Jordan during a closed session Monday evening. However, since Jordan resigned on Sunday, the matter will not be taken up since he is no longer an official city employee.
One sign that it may have been inevitable that Jordan was caught in a racial bias scandal?
He wanted to be the Joe Arpaio of Georgia, viewing the discriminatory Maricopa County sheriff as a model.
“I was very interested in how he described his ability to make people mad at him by simply enforcing the state and federal laws he is sworn to uphold,” Jordan said. “I told him, ‘It’s this simple, we the people of the United States, either citizens or politicians, do not have the pleasure to pick and choose which laws we will abide by. As law enforcement officials, we do not get to pick and choose which laws we enforce.’”
…
“We are in the process of setting up some training for the Grantville officers to travel to Arizona and get hands-on training,” Jordan said. …
“I plan to make a change here in Grantville,” Jordan said, “and being as tough on crime as Sheriff Arpaio is will help make the city of Grantville a safe place to live and raise a family. We are on the right track now.”
“Any chance that I can send a Grantville police officer to Arizona to train with the best would be unheard of without the support from Sheriff Arpaio,” he added.
