Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) Some residents of a predominantly white New Hampshire town are upset with racist remarks a police commissioner made about President Barack Obama.
Resident Jane O'Toole said she overheard Wolfeboro Police Commissioner Robert Copeland use a racial slur in describing Obama. And in an email to her, Copeland, who is white, acknowledged using the N-word in referring to the president and said he will not apologize.
"I believe I did use the 'N' word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse," Copeland said in an excerpt from an email he sent to his fellow police commissioners acknowledging his remark and then forwarded to O'Toole. "For this, I do not apologize he meets and exceeds my criteria for such."
Copeland also wrote: "While I believe the problems associated with minorities in this country are momentous, I am not phobic."
Copeland is one of three members of the police commission, which hires, fires and disciplines officers and sets their salaries. Copeland, 82, ran unopposed for re-election to the commission and secured another three-year term on March 11.
Wolfeboro Town Manager David Owen said Thursday that while he finds Copeland's comment "reprehensible," he and the board of selectmen have no authority to remove an elected official. Owen said he expects a large number of residents will call for Copeland's resignation at a police commission meeting, adding "more power to them."
Copeland has declined to be interviewed. Commission Chairman Joseph Balboni Jr. told the Concord Monitor he doesn't plan to ask Copeland to resign. He said, "He's (Copeland) worked with a lot of blacks in his life. ... He said some harsh words about Mr. Obama, and here we are. This woman, she's blowing it all out of proportion."
O'Toole, who moved to Wolfeboro four months ago, said she overheard Copeland use the racial slur to describe Obama at a local restaurant on March 6. She said she didn't know Copeland was the police commissioner until she returned to the restaurant the next day and asked about him.
She wrote to the town manager in early April, and he replied that he was powerless to act. She then wrote to Copeland's two fellow police commissioners. In an email response to her, Copeland included the excerpt from the email he had sent to the other commissioners.
About 20 black people live in Wolfeboro, a town of 6,300 residents in the scenic Lakes Region, in the central part of New Hampshire. The town manager's office said none of the police department's 12 full-time officers is black or a member of another minority. One of its part-time officers is black.
WOLFEBORO, N.H. (AP) A town police commissioner has resigned after he admitted using a racial slur to describe President Barack Obama, an official said Monday.
Robert Copeland, 82, resigned Sunday night from the post to which he was re-elected in March, Board of Selectmen Chair Linda Murray said, putting to rest a controversy that drew national attention and sparked impassioned debate in this resort town of 6,300 on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee.
"The town is pleased," Murray said Monday. "This gives us the opportunity to move on. We are a very accepting community that really takes care of each other."
Copeland has not returned several calls seeking comment.
At a meeting last week, Copeland defiantly sat with his arms folded as more than 100 residents pushed for his ouster and tore into his comments, saying he didn't speak the town or its people.
Copeland admitted using the slur, preceded by an obscenity, while he was at a restaurant in March. A resident, Jane O'Toole, overheard him and complained to town officials when she learned that Copeland was a police commissioner.
.Romney Slams Police Chief's 'vile' Oba . Play Video
Romney Slams Police Chief's 'vile' Obama …
"I believe I did use the 'N' word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse," Copeland wrote in the April email sent to the two other commissioners and forwarded to O'Toole. "For this, I do not apologize he meets and exceeds my criteria for such."
That defiance did not sit well with many in the town.
"I thought it was disgusting, and the way he justified it, it was even more disgusting," said Ernie Bauer, a 64-year-old carpenter. "It was disgusting 50 years ago."
A handful of people at the meeting spoke on behalf of Copeland, saying he had a right to free speech. But the louder message came from those who wanted him out.
O'Toole said Monday that she was pleased he stepped down.
"I feel it was the right thing for him to do to stop this incredible train that had been blowing through our town," she said. "I'm thrilled. The people of Wolfeboro have stood up and said that this is not acceptable."
Mitt Romney, the former GOP presidential nominee and a former Massachusetts governor, owns a home in Wolfeboro and had called for Copeland's resignation, saying "the vile epithet used and confirmed by the commissioner has no place in our community."
About 20 black people live year-round in Wolfeboro, in the scenic Lakes Region of New Hampshire, a state that's 94 percent white and 1 percent black. None of the town police department's 12 full-time officers is black or a member of another minority.
Police Chief Stuart Chase said Copeland's slur was "not indicative of the posture of this department. We treat everyone with dignity and respect."
Town officials also said they were appalled by Copeland's comments but said they were powerless to remove an elected official.
Jamie Murray said she wasn't surprised to hear racist comments since her biracial son has also faced taunts.
"It also gave me an understanding as to why the children think it's OK," she said Monday. "When you're held in office, and you decide to become an elected official, you represent something higher than your own standards and your own things, and you need to stand up for the community in which you serve."
We now live in an alternate universe. Not too many years ago, this would have offended a few people, but that would have been about it, and life would have went on. Now as you say, it makes national news and peoples lives are ruined.
We now live in an alternate universe. Not too many years ago, this would have offended a few people, but that would have been about it, and life would have went on. Now as you say, it makes national news and peoples lives are ruined.
Whose life is "ruined"?
The slimy racists are out from under their rocks. That doesn't mean normal people have to listen to it or pay their salaries.
Besides, he's 82yo and needs to go home and enjoy is Alheimer's.
