A city council in Alabama decided to abolish its police force after receiving a racist text message

• According to the mayor, James Latimer, a three-member police department in Alabama has been disbanded after the assistant chief sent other officers a racist text message.
• James Srygley, the chief of police, and John L. Gross, the assistant chief of police, were both motioned to be suspended with pay at an emergency meeting of the Vincent City Council on August 4.
• Later that evening, after the council decided to explore totally dismantling the agency, the third officer, Lee Cardin, resigned.

 According to the mayor, James Latimer, a three-member police department in Alabama has been disbanded after the assistant chief sent other officers a racist text message.

James Srygley, the chief of police, and John L. Gross, the assistant chief of police, were both motioned to be suspended with pay at an emergency meeting of the Vincent City Council on August 4. Later that evening, after the council decided to explore totally dismantling the agency, the third officer, Lee Cardin, resigned.

It resulted in no active police officers serving the city’s roughly 2,000 inhabitants.

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office reported the next day that it was “currently managing” all calls for law enforcement emergencies in Vincent, which is situated about 35 miles east of Birmingham.

The Vincent City Council and Mayor recently informed the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office of recent allegations of misbehavior within the Vincent Police Department, and we equally condemn these activities, according to the release. Sheriff [John] Samaniego supports the City of Vincent in offering its residents emergency law enforcement assistance at this time.

After the text message with the racist joke about slavery leaked on social media, irate citizens demanded the assistant police chief be dismissed during a City Council meeting on August 2.

Local resident Lois Garrett told WBRC, “To me, that was just a punch in the gut like going back to the 1930s and 1940s, and I frequently forget that we’re still not there.” “That hurt. I felt humiliated and ashamed because I believed that we were better than that.”

The subject will be considered by the council at their meeting on August 16th.

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