The Ohio police chief who was caught on video placing a note with the words “Ku Klux Klan” on top of a raincoat on the desk of a Black officer has resigned following the incident to avoid facing termination.
According to People, the 33-year veteran officer, Anthony Campo, who worked at the Sheffield Lake Police Department, left his position after meeting with Mayor Dennis Bring earlier this week.
Campo was caught in Surveillance footage recorded on June 25, arranging a yellow raincoat on the desk of an unidentified Black officer. He fixed the raincoat to look like a KKK member’s hood and robe and then placed a sign with the letters “KKK” on top of the coat and waited a few feet away for the officer to return.
The video does not contain sound, so it’s not clear what was said between the two officers once the Black officer returned, but Mayor Bring claimed it was Campo’s idea of a joke on the officer who had only been on the force for nine months.
“He thought this was just a joke,” Bring told the media after meeting with Campo. “How can you possibly think that you can put something on somebody’s jacket like that, and especially if they were African American, and think this is a joke?”
Bring also told the media that Campo claims that he didn’t understand why his actions were so offensive.
“[Campo] says, ‘I don’t understand what everybody’s all upset about. This was just a joke,'” Mayor Bring said.
