Watch: Slur-spewing Tennessee alderman spars with reporter — and defiantly says he's running for mayor
According to WSMV4, an alderman of Portland, Tennessee, a small Nashville-area town on the Kentucky border, is unapologetic after being caught multiple times on police body cameras using racial slurs — and the city can't remove him from office.
This comes after Portland Alderman Thomas Dillard got into an argument with reporters outside the council chambers a few days previously.
'Do you think you should stay on the council?' a WSMV4 reporter asked Dillard on Monday.
"Yes I do," he replied.
"Despite you making racist comments?" the reporter pressed.
"And I’m running for mayor!" a defiant Dillard said.
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The controversy began eight months before, when the first police camera footage was revealed of Dillard admitting to calling his Puerto Rican neighbor the N-word. In a second incident earlier this month shows him screaming about his neighbor again and referring to them as "f**king porch monkeys!"
Dillard initially responded to the footage by saying, “I’d like to apologize to those who were offended by the words that I used.” He has subsequently refused to resign, saying at one meeting in March, “Is there anybody on this board who can honestly say you’ve never used that word in your life?” When fellow Alderman Megann Thompson said she had never used it, he said, “Well, congratulations, you’re probably in the minority.”
Despite this, and despite condemnation and formal censures at council meetings, the mayor and the rest of the council have concluded there is no way to remove him from office.
"A statement from the city of Portland, posted to Facebook Thursday afternoon, explains why they cannot remove Alderman Thomas Dillard, who has repeatedly been captured on police body camera using racial slurs," said the report. "The statement reads in part, 'Since elected council members are not technically a city employee, they do not fall under the same employment guidelines; and under State law, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen have limited powers when it comes to the removal of an elected official.'"
Watch WSMV's report below.
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