WHITE GEORGIA DEPUTY SHERIFF SUSPENDED WHEN BLACKFACE COTTON PICKER PHOTOS SURFACE

CHAD PALMER

A white Georgia police officer who dressed in blackface for Halloween has been suspended after residents in the community became understandably outraged.
A Camden County Georgia deputy sheriff has been suspended without pay after photos surfaced of him dressed not only in blackface but as a black prisoner in a striped jail uniform ‘picking cotton’ at a Halloween party.

Sheriff Jim Proctor has suspended Deputy Sheriff Chad Palmer without pay and said while Palmer’s costume was ‘extremely insensitive,’ he doesn’t believe that Palmer is racist.

Proctor says Palmer has been placed on probation for a year and the department’s deputy sheriffs are now required to participate in sensitivity training which begins next week. But some angry residents in the south Georgia county say that’s not enough.

The Camden County sheriff Jim made the announcement in front of a room packed with community members, local church leaders and representatives from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Wednesday. ‘Today, we are here because of someone’s inappropriate, insensitive actions. Extremely insensitive, is what it is. I do not believe Chad Palmer is a racist. I have had to take action,’ said Proctor.