Black women disproportionately experience violence at home, at school and at work. So it’s disconcerting that in Southeastern Ohio, despite a threat of violence by Nelsonville Police Officer Joshua Braglin against Tiffany Tims, the interim police chief at Hocking College, Braglin managed to keep his job for months until pressure from the local community forced him out on Wednesday.
Tims sent an official complaint about the actions of Braglin to the city last November. He began to slander her after she demanded her officers stand down in pursuit of a possibly armed suspect as the case was out of their jurisdiction.
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, according to The Athens News.
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In November, the city council also received “a full stack of screenshots” of Braglin’s vile posts including a meme on his Facebook page of Tims sitting in her car with the text, “Acting Chief Timm (sic)… Chicken and Waffles baby.”
Yet six months later, he wasn’t fired but on administrative leave. Since at least 2009, Braglin has been disciplined by the city of Nelsonville four times.
It wasn’t until the NAACP’s Dayton unit and Tims said they intended to file an official complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice for the Southern Ohio Region, and protesters showed up in support of Tims, that the Nelsonville City Council reached a 6-0 vote on Wednesday night to fire Braglin.
“[Braglin] is not only a threat to the residents of color and the students of color that live in Nelsonville but every resident of Nelsonville,” Andrea Reany, one of the protesters in attendance at the city council meeting, told WCMH-Channel 4.
“The fact that it took so long is concerning to me and I think that it means that there are more problems within the police force,” another protester, Tyler Barton, said.
