Besieged for sending racist text messages, Senatobia police chief is fired by city leadership

By Mukta Joshi and Joseph Cranney, Verite News | Originally published by Mississippi Today

Leaders of the northern Mississippi city of Senatobia fired their embattled police chief late Tuesday, days after Mississippi Today, Verite News and The New York Times reported that he had routinely used degrading language and racist slurs against Black people in his text messages.

Chief Harold Vanderford, known as Hal, had submitted a resignation letter earlier in the day, but the city’s Board of Aldermen voted to reject it and moved to terminate him instead. 

Vanderford’s department has been heavily scrutinized in the wake of a white officer’s fatal shooting of Kohen Wiley, a Black toddler, after police officers responded to a shoplifting call at the local Walmart in June.

“We did not accept Vanderford’s resignation and fired him,” Alderman Chris McConnell said, adding that the decision had been unanimous. Vanderford and a department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In recent days, Vanderford had not responded to multiple phone calls and written messages from reporters, including notes left at his home and office.

Until the city leadership appoints a permanent replacement, the department will be led by Lt. Angelica Maze, McConnell said.

In late August, reporters for Mississippi Today, Verite News and The New York Times revealed that Vanderford had used a racist slur more than a dozen times in a series of 10 text conversations dating to last summer. One day before Vanderford’s termination, the outlets published the uncensored messages along with the steps they had taken to verify them.

Vanderford took the helm of the department last October, and the racist messages continued after his appointment. In one text message, Vanderford described having a “racist moment.” In another, he wrote that he “almost beat a nigger and white woman’s ass a few minutes ago.” He also wrote that he had been saying the slur loudly many times at home, and hoped his neighbors had heard him.

Five of Vanderford’s acquaintances confirmed that the phone number associated with the messages belonged to the chief.

On Monday, Demetrius Garrett, an at-large alderman, told reporters that he had no hesitation in saying that he would move to immediately terminate Vanderford, “if these allegations are true.” Garrett ultimately made the motion to terminate Vanderford on Tuesday.

Senatobia’s aldermen had met with Vanderford twice in closed-door sessions after the revelations about his text messages.

After the first session on Aug. 25, a statement attributed to the mayor and the board of aldermen expressed confidence in the chief after he “voluntarily and willingly” appeared before city leaders and provided “sincere” responses to their questions. That statement did not elaborate on the questions posed to Vanderford or the specifics of his responses.

McConnell issued a clarification soon after, saying he believed Vanderford should address the citizens of Senatobia. He disavowed the city’s statement, saying it had not been voted upon by the Board of Aldermen even though it was attributed to them.

Garrett said the same thing about the statement Monday. He added that he had personally asked the mayor to resign from his position, too. “We need a mayor that cares about the people,” Garrett said, adding that when a city doesn’t have such a mayor, “you land yourself in situations like this.”

Mayor Greg Graves hasn’t responded to numerous requests for comment from reporters in the last month.

Vanderford has said nothing about the June shooting publicly, and Kohen’s family said Vanderford hadn’t offered condolences privately, either. The city’s Board of Aldermen placed the officer involved, Sgt. Hunter Foster, on leave two days after the shooting, which remains under investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.

Since Vanderford took over as chief, Foster has separately faced at least two complaints that he used racially offensive language with co-workers, Mississippi Today reported in July and August. In the months leading up to the shooting, Foster referred to a Black officer as a “Black motherfucker” and directed another derogatory remark toward a white co-worker who has a daughter with a Black woman, according to internal department complaints.

There’s no indication that Vanderford took any disciplinary action against Foster, who was allowed to remain on patrol. 

This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Source: Original Article