Police commissioner in N.H. town resigns over Obama slur
(CNN) - A small-town police commissioner in New Hampshire, who originally said he wouldn't apologize for calling President Barack Obama the n-word, resigned on Monday.
Joseph Balboni, Police Commission chairman of Wolfeboro, confirmed to CNN that he received a resignation email from Robert Copeland.
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"Dear Commission Chairman Balboni, I resign," wrote Copeland in the email.
Last Thursday, Copeland, 82, sat with his arms crossed at a packed town meeting while a crowd of angry residents in the predominantly white town called for his resignation.
Copeland acknowledged in an email to his fellow police commissioners that he used the racial slur to describe Obama.
Jane O'Toole, who moved to Wolfeboro four months ago, said she overheard Copeland use the word at a restaurant in March.
"It's not like I was eavesdropping. Mr. Copeland was being very loud," O'Toole told CNN affiliate WMUR.
She wrote to the town manager about the incident, and Copeland replied with a letter to O'Toole.
"I believe I did use the 'N' word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse (sic)," Copeland wrote. "For this, I do not apologize - he meets and exceeds my criteria for such."
Copeland was one of three members of the police commission, which hires, fires and disciplines officers and sets their salaries.
Two months ago he ran unopposed for re-election and secured another three-year term.
Wolfeboro, located in the scenic Lakes Region in the central part of New Hampshire, has around 20 African-American residents among its population of 6,300. The town was often a dateline in news reports during the 2012 presidential election, with GOP Mitt Romney spending time with family and campaign aides at his vacation home on Lake Winnipesaukee.
Over the weekend Romney called on Copeland to apologize and resign.
"The vile epithet used and confirmed by the commissioner has no place in our community: He should apologize and resign," Romney said in a statement provided to CNN
CNN's Yon Pomrenze, Stephanie Gallman, Paul Steinhauser and Kevin Bohn contributed to this report
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Well, bye.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Obama got called a nasty name. Boo hoo! Cry, little babies! Cry! I ASSURE you he gets called MUCH worse around here on an hourly basis.
Good riddance. This guy is a dinosaur, outdated, and obsolete.
And should quit if he said he thought Obama and his staff were clueless, we would be behind him 100% but the world has no more room for race slurs.
Bye bye, D-Bag.
Is he too old to know that the President is half black and half white? Most Obama haters always forget that he shares half of their white blood.
Like he cares. Good for him for speaking his mind.
Why didn't Jesse Jackson resign when he did the same thing?
Freedom of speech is alive and well… Copeland deserves the reaction he received, as people are free to react as they see fit, and he deserves to lose his position in politics, due to the political fallout from such unprofessional conduct. However, he is not being imprisoned or executed for insulting his "ruler", and he remains free to pursue his racist interests and to continue to speak disrespectfully of others. That wouldn't be the case in most parts of the world.
Buh-bye!
Bigots never go away, you know.
They just fade into the background.
Buh bye bigot!
we're not like this creep up here. every person I know from nh is thrilled he's gone; lets hope others like him get lost, too.
One less racist in power, a lot more to go!
Don't let the door knob hit you where the dog should have bit you.
good riddance.
The thought police have won today.
Every last American who is happy at this denial of First Amendment rights should remember this when they themselves are denied their right to express themselves.
That reality is already here; it's just a matter of time before every American experiences the same thing.
Shame on all the self-appointed thought police.
Good riddance.
Robert Byrd used the N word repeatedly on the U.S. Senate floor and was also a KKK grand wizard. Media's response? Muted... those who did report stressed his age Just sayin.
I'm both shocked and surprised by this.
Too bad.
Another one forced to agree to political correctness or lose his job.
Once upon a time people were allowed to have their own opinions and those who didnt agree with those opinions just ignored them.
This is no way to treat a Civil War hero
If one cannot treat people with dignity and respect one should not have a position of authority or one in which one must deal with the public.
good riddance, and take your hateful views six feet under!
Good riddance to yet another dinosaur. What a class act to send such a childish resignation letter to his chairman.
Hopefully, someday we'll be able to purge these dolts from their lofty perches.