Georgia deputy sheriff dressed in blackface as a jail inmate 'picking cotton' for Halloween

A white Georgia police officer who dressed in blackface for Halloween has been suspended after residents in the community became understandably outraged.

via Daily Mail

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.

‘There's been a lot of thought, a lot of prayer in to this decision,’ Proctor said. ‘I thought about firing him but decided against it.’

Meanwhile, some members of the coastal county’s community say he should have.

‘To me, it was like a slap in the face,’ Pastor Mack Knight said of the pictures. ‘Out of all of the characters that this police officer could have chosen, he chose to go as a slave, an inmate, picking cotton.’

Community member Shelia Blake agreed.

‘That is bad. For this to be a deputy doing something like this,’ she told First Coast News. ‘This isn't causing anything but a war in Camden County. It's not good for Camden County.’

In light of the revelations and their racist implications, some residents have asked for an investigation into the possibility that Palmer’s previous arrests have been racially motivated.

Proctor said he analyzed the deputy’s record while weighing the decision and found no evidence of prejudice.