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On August 7, 2022, a Georgia police officer was caught on camera uttering racial slurs while serving a warrant. The footage went viral on the internet, leading to the eventual suspension of the officer seen in the video along with four other cops involved in the case.
The resident of the house, Tomeshia Madden, shared the incriminating footage on Facebook on August 7, and claimed that neither she nor her teenage son felt safe anymore and had started looking for new places to relocate to.
According to media accounts, the West Point cops were there to execute a warrant for Madden's son. They went to the Booker Hills residence to serve the warrant, but nobody was at home.
Disclaimer: The following video contains sensitive content. Viewer discretion is advised.
Donald Bramblett, who was identified as the officer uttering the n-word on camera, was placed on leave by the Georgia Police Department. Officer Dylan Harmon, Officer Zachary Heyboer, Sgt. William Osteen and Detective Elizabeth Wegienka were also involved in the incident and received similar leave orders.
The GBI has opened a probe into the matter.
What did the Georgia police officers do?
In the footage, an officer is seen waiting at the door. As a second officer approaches, they begin speaking incomprehensibly.
The GBI reported that one of the officers then used a racial epithet as he disassembled the home's security system and tossed it into the nearby bushes, unaware that there was another camera above him.
Georgia Police subjected to dire criticism as video went viral
The video was also picked up by a major subreddit named r/PublicFreakout, where it garnered over 200 comments, with people calling out the rampant racism in rural Georgia.
An user u/arch_nyc commented:
"I grew up in rural Georgia. As a disclaimer, I haven’t lived there since the mid 2000s. But even then, you wouldn’t believe how racist the average white person was there. They’d be polite in public but, in the presence of only white people, I’d seen almost everyone I know using the N-word to refer to African Americans."
Another user, u/Optimal_Locke commented that the officers should be fired.
The comment reads:
" Suspended? They should be FIRED, and not hireable as police ever again, anywhere. They CLEARLY show a racial prejudice and bias against black folks and don't even deserve to be SECURITY GUARDS, let alone cops."
Following the incident, Tomeshia Madden filed a misconduct complaint. In a statement to the press, Madden's attorney, Wendell Major, said:
"It is not appropriate for public officials to make racially derogatory terms during their duties. Young black men are accused often throughout our country and have to have evidence that they didn't do anything wrong. Here we have an officer in uniform concealing evidence of what happened."
While GBI conducts its inquiry, the officers will remain on administrative leave. Once the investigation is over, authorities will submit the case file for evaluation to the district attorney's office for the Coweta Judicial Circuit.
