A black police
officer in the United States has filed a discrimination suit after he allegedly
received a racist note from a superior officer, reports BBC news. Officer Keith
Pool made the allegation after a video surfaced which showed Sheffield Lake
Police Chief Anthony Campo putting a note on the officer’s desk which read Ku
Klux Klan (KKK) in June, 2020.

An allegation was
also made that Anthony Campo engaged in ongoing racist abuse against officer
Pool. After the video surfaced, Anthony Campo resigned from his post and has
claimed his actions were a “joke”.

Officer Keith Pool,
the first black officer in Sheffield Lake in 2020, told the media Thursday that
he was initially shocked at what had happened and had simply asked the then
police chief: “Are you serious?”

According to the
57-year-old officer, his superior Campo’s remarks are part of a pattern of
racist behaviour. The pattern includes the wearing of a pointy hat that is symbolic
of the KKK — a white supremacist organisation. Officer Poole said Anthony Campo
harassed him on an “ongoing basis” and created racially offensive images
mocking him and another Latino officer in the division.

Anthony Campo
resigned from his post after the town’s mayor placed him on leave in July. He
has maintained that he was only joking. “It was just a joke that got out of
hand. I hired that officer on the force, he’s excellent with children, and I
helped him save his job after he was in danger of being let go by another
department due to age restrictions,” Campo told the media.

Keith Poole, meanwhile,
said that he just couldn’t comprehend the behaviour. Talking about when he
asked his superior officer if he was being serious, Poole said: “What else can
you say to the chief of police, who has done something so heinous and so awful
to the first black officer ever? It’s not understandable.