Some racist comments allegedly made by Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden caused a response from Sheriffs’ Offices across the state, and the association that represents all sheriffs in North Carolina counties has now joined the chorus of people commenting on the incident.
Someone released an audio recording of what seems to be McFadden, who is black. The recording allegedly shows McFadden talking to his staff in a slurred voice in which he calls a white officer racist and a black officer racist.
McFadden also seems to say that the seven black police officers are lazy in the audio.
Since the recordings became public, the Mecklenburg sheriff has been under a lot of scrutiny. The NC Sheriffs’ Association said it is now looking into the matter.
In the recording, McFadden seemed to say, “I know I can not trust that captain.” “That white captain of the cracker is better than the seven on the second floor.”
He uses the N-word later in the recording when he is complaining about staff not being reliable and not doing their jobs.
This makes his controversial monologue one of the few times someone was caught using racial slurs against both black and white people in the same statement.
It was big news in the Charlotte area after the scandal broke. McFadden talked about it in public at a speech for new trainees, but he did not say that it was his voice on the recording.
He said, “You need to talk to me if you think I am racist.” “Talk to the kids who come to see me if you think I am racist.” Talk to people who know me if you think I am racist.
People have complained about the sheriff’s actions because they think they are biased against people of color before.
For years, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police has said bad things about McFadden’s leadership.
The group’s president, Dan Redford, told a Mecklenburg County news outlet that this had been a problem with the sheriff for a while.
He said, “We told everyone about McFadden’s racist comments three years ago, but no one believed us.”
There was a statement from the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association soon after the sheriff’s comments were reported in the news. The association is made up of all 100 sheriff’s offices in the state.
The association said in a statement that the statewide group is aware of the “racially charged comments” McFadden is said to have made.
In their statement, the Association also said that his words “shock the conscience” and are “offensive, inflammatory, racist, and insulting.”
As the name suggests, the Association thinks that sheriffs should always be held to the highest standards of professionalism, ethics, principles, and morals.
They should also serve their communities without regard to race, color, nationality, religion, or sex. Comments that are racially charged do not meet those standards at all.
In the beginning of the association’s Constitution, it says that “bonds of confidence, respect, and friendship” must be built between sheriffs across the state.
This, according to the preamble, “maintains peace for North Carolina citizens and residents” and aims to gain the public’s trust through the “courtesy, honesty, integrity, and dependability of the sheriffs of North Carolina.”
So, this week, the Association’s Executive Committee (the governing board) said that the committee had voted unanimously to look into the matter further.