UPDATE May 30, 2018 at 10:38 p.m. ET:
On Wednesday night the Nelsonville City Council unanimously voted to fire police officer Joshua Braglin. The vote came during a city council meeting attended by numerous protesters.
ORIGINAL STORY
A white male police officer from Southeastern Ohio made racist and threatening Facebook posts against Hocking College Interim Police Chief Tiffany Tims, who is Black. Nelsonville Police Officer Joshua Braglin hasn’t been fired. So, community organizers have scheduled a protest for Wednesday evening.
Derrick L. Forward, president of the NAACP’s Dayton unit, held a press conference with Tims on Friday, according to a Facebook post, demanding Nelsonville City Manager Chuck Barga fire Braglin or face a lawsuit from the organization.
Braglin, currently on unpaid leave, made derogatory social media posts against Tims after she demanded her officers stand down in pursuit of a possibly armed suspect as the case was out of their jurisdiction, according to The Athens News.
Screenshots of Braglin’s posts were shared with the Nelsonville City Council.
“We were given a full stack of screenshots of things that had happened,” city council member Taylor Sappington told NBC4-Columbus last week. “Quite frankly worse than what we imagined.”
Sappington is one of the council members calling for Braglin to be fired.
Hocking College Interim Police Chief Tiffany TimsLINKEDIN
Braglin, who has been with the department since 2007, posted a meme on his Facebook page of Tims sitting in her car with the text, “Acting Chief Timm (sic)… Chicken and Waffles baby.”
In another screenshot obtained by The Athens News, which appears to be from Facebook Messenger, he insinuated that Tims is a monkey.
“A reading from the book of Braglin,” the post reads. “The Lord sayith to young Joshua, the force between good and evil, ‘Step forward and speak your mind, if the half (expletive) chief and old bitty president of a sinking college don’t like your comments, tell them to (expletive) off’ . for the Lord’s house has many rooms, 1 filled with bananas, the other with Efferdent.”
Also, at least two police officers confirmed they allegedly heard Braglin stating that he would “beat that n***er to death with a banana” before she could become Hocking College’s permanent police chief.
Nelsonville Police Officer Joshua Braglin
The city has been investigating Braglin’s conduct since last November after receiving screenshots of his posts. He was placed on paid administrative leave April 3 and then on unpaid leave April 26.
Tims first filed a complaint last year with the city about his conduct.
“This situation has dragged on,” she said during Friday’s press conference.
“Something has to be done,” Tims added. “There are a lot of African American men who are being killed because of individuals like [Braglin]. I cannot brush this under the rug.”
Since at least 2009, Braglin has been disciplined by the city of Nelsonville four times, according to The Athens News.
During the Nelsonville City Council meeting Wednesday evening, protesters plan to make their voices heard outside of the building.
The Facebook event listing “Fire racist cop Joshua Braglin!” states that the protest is “against Braglin’s racist and misogynistic posts and the attempt by the police to protect an open racist within their ranks.”
NBC4-Columbus reported last week that six Nelsonville City Council members signed a letter explaining why they have called on city administration to fire Braglin, and only one of the council members did not sign the letter.
The protest organizers claim on Facebook that Braglin “is being protected by the police ‘union’ and potentially through family connections between the chief of police and Nelsonville City Council member Greg Smith.”
