Police chief fired after bragging about killing 13 people in racist tapes OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
The chief of police in the predominantly black city of Lexington, Mississippi, was fired this week after a leaked recording published by an investigative news channel revealed that the white officer boasted of killing 13 people while performing their duties, including shooting a black man on at least 119 times.
A 16-minute audio recording — reportedly recorded in April by another officer and provided to a civil rights group — features now former police chief Sam Dobbins delivering a racist rant of confessions.
“I shot and killed 13 different people on the job,” he said, according to the recording, which was obtained by civil rights group JULIAN and reported first by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting.
The recording was captured by Officer Robert Lee Hooker, who resigned from the department due to a toxic work environment under Mr. Dobbins, who was promoted to chief last year.
“I knew that once I could get him to talk, he was going to say something unreasonable,” Hooker told Mississippi’s WJTV.
“I just got to the point where you don’t do people good, you don’t do good, so let me expose you for what you are,” he told WLBT. “And so it happened.”
The recording begins with Mr. Dobbins appearing to refuse an apology to Mr. Hooker.
“You’ll get some shit on the street, and only one man will fight for you, and it’ll be me, okay?” One can hear Mr. Dobbin say. “Don’t ever mess that up, okay, because those other bastards will leave you dry. I don’t care if you’re *********** in cold blood… I’ll articulate to solve the f******* problem, and I’m the only one man in the business here who is smart enough to do it.”
He then claims to have “killed 13 men in my career, rightly so”.
At one point in the recording, while describing an alleged shooting, Mr. Dobbins claimed he “saved 67 children in a school” by shooting a black man more than 100 times.
“I shot that n****** 119 times, okay?” he said. “The vehicle was shot at 319 times, but it was hit by me 119 times.”
On Wednesday, the Lexington Board of Aldermen, representing the city of about 1,600 residents — nearly 80 percent of whom are black — voted 3-2 to fire Mr. Dobbs, effective immediately.
Lexington residents have previously described police treating the city as “the wild, wild west,” alleging widespread police brutality and abuse.
More than a dozen residents spoke to the council of aldermen at a hearing in December to take the problem directly to the city authorities.
Police say at least 286 people will have been killed by police in 2022 Mapping police brutality project. Analysis of data maintained by The Washington Post notes that at least 1,054 people were killed by police between July 2021 and July 2022.
Jill Collen Jefferson, JULIAN’s founder and president, shared: The Washington Post that the audio is “damned”.
“It’s not just a reflection of one officer. It is a reflection of a whole police culture, and it should urge Congress to finally rein in this modern slave patrol. A culture like this does not deserve immunity,” she said.
Cardell Wright of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party said in a statement that Mr. Dobbins’ comments are “neither the behavior or rhetoric that should emanate from an officer, especially the chief.”
The group has called for “an end to police brutality, assault, abuse of power, false accusations, complacency among elected officials and all political games”, as well as the disbanding of the city’s police in the wake of the shooting.
Dobbins told the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting that he was not aware of any recording and denied using defamation. He declined to comment on the alleged shooting, according to the outlet.
The independent has also sought comment from the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office.