Local New Hampshire police official defends using racial epithet against Obama

last updated 8 January 2015

The small town of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, is in an uproar over remarks made by Robert Copeland, a member of its three-person elected Police Commission, who shouted a racial epithet at a restaurant TV screen as it aired footage of President Obama. And that's not all: Copeland is fully standing by those remarks.

As the Concord Monitor reports, here is what he wrote in a letter, responding to a resident who had complained to the commission:

"While I believe the problems associated with minorities in this country are momentous, I am not phobic. My use of derogatory slang in reference to those among them undeserving of respect is no secret. It is the exercise of my 1st Amendment rights," it read. "I believe I did use the 'N' word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse (sic). For this I do not apologize — he meets and exceeds my criteria for such." [Concord Monitor]

The Union Leader reports that the commission will hold a regular public meeting tonight, which is expected to attract a big attendance.