A Kentucky news station obtained video footage from a September traffic accident that shows a local fire chief refusing to help a black family even though he provided assistance above and beyond what was called for to a white driver that was involved in the same accident. Not only did the fire chief refuse to help the family of four, he told a deputy that was on the scene that he wasn’t “taking no n***ers here” and then laughed. The same fire chief also dismissed an Asian reporter’s questions during an open meeting last week by asking the reporter if she understood English.
The video footage from the accident that was obtained by WDRB was from a body camera worn by a Bullitt County Sheriff’s deputy. The deputy’s camera showed the fire chief, Julius Hatfield, offering to assist the white driver, Loren Dicken. Hatfield tells Dicken that he’ll have some of his firefighters repair his truck’s tire while Dicken goes to the hospital to be examined. Per Hatfield’s conservation with Dicken, this would allow Dicken to avoid a towing bill. WDRB also discovered that firefighters picked up Dicken from the hospital and took him to his truck, which was waiting for him at the firehouse.
Meanwhile, the other driver, Chege Mwangi, was not provided anywhere near the same amount of assistance. Despite having his wife and two children in the car, he was essentially shunted off to the side. While Dicken was being doted on by the firefighters and his truck was being tended to, the deputy asked Hatfield what they should do with the family. That is when Hatfield said, “We ain’t taking no n***ers here.” After that conversation, the deputy asks Mwangi if he has AAA to help him with his car. Mwangi, for his part, says he found the deputy to be helpful but did notice he was not provided with the same treatment. He let it go at the time since he was uninjured.
WDRB also played footage of Hatfield at an open community meeting last week where he disparaged reporter Valerie Chinn. When Chinn asked him about potential mismanagement of finances due to a number of empty firehouses in the district, Hatfield repeatedly asked her if she understood English. Below is a recap from WDRB’s website:
“Why are there so many firehouses that are empty?” WDRB’s Valerie Chinn asked Hatfield at the meeting.
“Do you understand English darling?” Hatfield replied. “Do you understand English?”
Hatfield tried to have Chinn and her photographer removed from the public meeting.
“Turn that camera off,” Hatfield ordered. “I’ve asked you that in a nice way. Buddy, call the cops and get them here.”
“I asked you once tonight if you understand English,” he added. “I’m speaking English.”
Below is video of the news segment, courtesy of WDRB:
Sadly, it is not all that uncommon to find unrepentant racists in positions of authority within communities. Earlier this year, a police commissioner in New Hampshire loudly called President Obama the N-word while at a restaurant. When confronted about it in May, he refused to apologize and stood by the remarks. He initially declined to step down from his position and the commission didn’t force him out. However, he eventually resigned in the end. This past July in Florida, a deputy police chief resigned and another police officer was fired after the FBI informed the police department that both men were members of the Ku Klux Klan.
These are just two examples that made national headlines. There are surely more instances of overt racism being displayed by local authorities that haven’t been caught on video or led to firings. However, to hear it from white conservatives, we live in a post-racial society because America elected a black president. Racism is a thing of the past and only used by liberals and race hustlers to create division among the races. Mmm-hmmm.
Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).
RednecKKK?
Is this Chief Julius Hatfield in his younger days?
Sigh… keep it klassy, home state.
Damn why when I see that pic Deliverance comes to mind?
Undressing the N-word:
http://www.amazon.com/Undressing-N-word-Revealing-Naked-Deceit/dp/0615962424/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1392176564&sr=1-1&keywords=undressing+the+n+word
Republicans know damn good and well that racism is alive and well, they are the masters of faux indignation. The right is full of pathological liars.
The last few lines, I see that often. The psychological projection is often used right from the get go. I’ve watched this shit pretty much since Obama was elected, they gave him 3 weeks and have relentlessly beat the drum of demagoguery. These Ass holes have come out of the woodwork and disrupted the whole process of compromise. Our country definitely will have troubling times ahead.
Dale Gribble apparently going by a new pseudonym after King Of The Hill went off the air.
He doesn’t remember the incident because it’s normal behavior for him to use the N word and people who don’t use the N word don’t accidentally have a slip of the tongue where that word comes out.
His response only reinforces our belief that he’s a racist.
That’s Kentucky red for you. Here in Tennessee out of the cities it isnt much different in places
Squick! Did you have to?
Introduce this asshole to a baseball bat.
You can tell he a racist by the way he looks. He looks like he is dumb as a damn rock. But people like him doesn’t bother me, because I know some day his skinny ass will reap what he sows.
This sort of incident embarrasses me to be Southern born. Bullitt County is about 1 hour south of Jefferson County (Louisville), and is a know hotbed for the KKK. This moron is probably a sheet carrying member!
He should have been fired before now. The fact that he has not been tells you everything you need to know about Shepardsville. Everybody is not a racists, but if you keep your mouth shut and don’t speak up, you’re part of the problem
Ignorant hillbillies don’t know there is only one race….the human race.
Thanks I just laughed so hard coffee came out my nose.
Stupid, lazy McCoys…
That guy needs spreaders (known to the public as the Jaws of Life) stuck up his ass and opened up wide enough to shove a halligan bar into it.
(Sideways, that is.)
This kind of thing is an example why I never say the g.d. Pledge of Allegiance at any of our stupid FD events.
No Joe, that picture is of him yesterday!
Most of this right wing nuts are kkk members in blue suites.
Most Republicans are bigots.
Hey, is anyone here REALLY surprised by this story?? I’m not, but lets dig deeper shall we? the GOP has used a MASS media campaigns designed to fan the flames of racism!! conservative radio is HATE media, listening to o’reilly, beck, klannity, limbaugh, FUX NEWS INC. it’s like having john birch meetings over the air!! this country is handing towards a civil war!! Do you think the south was ever ok with their defeat?? wake up america, the koch brothers in particular are RACIST!! their daddy co-founded the john birch society!! BTW the “STAND YOUR GROUND LAW” was a ALEC decision written by those RACIST PIGS! the only difference between chief hatfield and the koch’s is, the koch’s are worth almost a TRILLION dollars!!!
think these people are so ignorant that they don’t even know how ignorant they are.
They are the type people who make me cringe when they accuse anyone a little different to them as foreigners who should learn to speak english.
Being originally english it really gets to me when people who murder the english language tell others to learn it.
Do they even have english teachers in schools in the south any more?
BTW, checkout those precious little darlings over in St. Louis just 60 miles from ferguson who thought it was a GREAT idea to dress up in BLACK face and take facebook pictures, and of course the hordes of WHITE republicans will take to the internet with their standard line of nonsensical BULL$HIT excuses and denials!! WATCH!! anyone with ANY common historical knowledge knows BLACK FACE is a reference to the theater days of al jolson minstrel shows, where parts portraying A.A. weren’t allowed to use real A.A performing in the theater. Now watch some neanderthal republicans start crying, ”IT’s their school colors!!!” how about using WHITES wearing black face isn’t very appropriate with the situation in ferguson right now???!!! typical republicans, ZERO sympathy, ZERO!!!
Nothing good can come from this degeneration to pure hatred that is seen across this nation. The sad part is that we all will experience some suffering along with a**holes like this thing. If one don’t believe this fact, one only have to look at who will soon be in charge of our legislative part of our nation’s government the next 2 years.
UncaJoe:: I think that looks like him recently, calling in sick. Drunk as usual….doing what he does daily, I suppose.
Don’t let anyone tell ya that the MSM is liberal either. They are repub owned and repub corp board run. Why else are the major tv networks not showing PBO’s speech to the nation tonight on immigration reform? We have been had folks. And the repubs are winning big time.
behold! the poster boy for the rw.gop.tp.koch.fox sycophant. the same who hate obamacare, but love their aca in KY. the same clucks who voted for chief spokeshole, and bootlicker, mc slobber.
next on fox, we’ll put this guy up as a real ‘merican hero. after all the gop.tp. south loves the blacks, they think everyone should own a few…
Bullitt County is immediately south of Jefferson County/Louisville, much less than an hour. When we made the move from Maryland last year and were looking for homes, we stayed clear of anything south of 64. Louisville is generally blue, but is surrounded by stupid.
When a law enforcement officer runs around wearing a military 4-star generals rank, you have a tinpot dictator problem. They are law enforcement, not conquering warlords.
When this jerk laughed it sounded exactly like Woody Woodpecker, wow. If this guy’s the chief I wonder what the rest of the fire department is like; does Elmer Fudd comes to mind?
Hmmm, wonder where all that money went? Hell, it went into his bank account most likely…I hope the idiot gets prison time for skimming off the top…he is one racist sob.
I picture the phone conversation as something like this:
Fire station #2, we will be unable to respond to any emergencies until the equipment is clean and the paper work in completed.
I know people that refuse to believe even when showed this kind of video evidence that this kind of hatred goes on daily and it’s ALWAYS the Reich Wing doing it. To them, and they say this with anger “It’s a damned Liberal Plot and they make this stuff up”!!!