North Carolina sheriff under investigation after racist rants exposed

On Wednesday, WECT reported that the sheriff of Columbus County, North Carolina is under investigation after a subordinate recorded his racist rant against multiple Black officials in a phone call.

As reported by WECT's Ann McAdams, Columbus County Sheriff Jody Greene is now in hot water after Columbus County Captain Jason Soles got tired of hearing his racist tirades and began recording their phone calls.

"On one end of the phone was Columbus County Sheriff Jody Greene. On the other was then-Captain Jason Soles, who had just been tapped to lead the Sheriff’s Office while elections officials investigated a complaint questioning whether Greene was eligible to serve as sheriff," the report stated. "Greene wanted to know who in the department had communicated with Lewis Hatcher, the former sheriff whom Greene had narrowly defeated in the election, and Melvin Campbell, a recently-fired sergeant, both of whom are African-American. In Greene’s words, they had a 'snitch' in the office, leaking information to his political opponent who had sued to be reinstated until the election protests were resolved."

“I’m sick of it. I’m sick of these black bastards,” Greene said over the call. “I’m going to clean house and be done with it. And we’ll start from there.”

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Soles told WECT that he was shocked by the sheriff's comments and started recording his calls.

"'This one particular phone call that [I] received, he made the comment that he hated Democrats," explained Soles, who is now running for Columbus County Sheriff against Greene. "And then he said, ‘I take that back. I hate a black f***ing Democrat.’ And, and I knew right then, I was like, ‘Wow, this is coming from the sheriff.’ And, I had to start recording those conversations."

Sheriffs around the country have often come under fire for alleged racist conduct. In April, Sheriff Rick Hickman of Prairie County, Arkansas was caught apparently dismissing the details of a triple shooting because of the victims' race, and defended himself by saying he can't be a racist because he only uses the N-word "occasionally."