Two officers with the Anniston Police Department were placed on leave Wednesday after a video revealed ties to an alleged hate group. Top officials from city hall and the police department held a private meeting the following day to update an advisory council of the ongoing investigation.
ANNISTON, Ala. – Local NAACP chapter president David Baker says Anniston officials have assured him the investigation into two police officers is not going to take long. Baker was alongside other civic leaders and elected officials for a Thursday afternoon press conference at Anniston City Hall to discuss a morning meeting with city officials about Lt. Josh Doggrell and Lt. Wayne Brown and their ties to the League of the South.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Montgomery-based human rights group, the League of the South is a primarily white, Christian, neo-Confederate hate group. In a Wednesday post to the SPLC website, Doggrell was seen in a video speaking at the League’s annual conference in 2013 suggesting a second Southern secession from a law enforcement perspective. Brown was also at the conference, according to the SPLC, although the depth of his involvement is not as clear. Doggrell admitted in the speech that previous leadership within the Anniston Police Department did not raise any flags when a performance evaluation was aware of his ties to the group. The revelations on Wednesday resulted in the officers immediately being placed on paid administrative leave and has launched a probe by city hall into previous internal investigations.
“I think the suspension was in good taste,” said Baker, who is also the chair of the Anniston Citizen Police Advisory Council. “I think it was quickly done, it was proactive,” he said. Baker was joined by Rev. Freddy Rimpsey, president of the Calhoun County Leaders Roundtable, and Jesse Edwards of the Justice & Civil Rights Initiative. According to Rimpsey, Anniston police Chief Shane Denham confirmed in the morning meeting that both officers remain active members of the league. Baker said the chief had not yet completed the review of a 2009 investigation into Doggrell’s ties to the league but said the current investigation may extend beyond the two officers. “They have looked at other officers to see if they had any inkling of what was going on,” he said.
In the full video of his speech, Doggrell made disparaging remarks about Calhoun County Sheriff Larry Amerson, calling the longtime sheriff a “scoundrel” and accusing him of helping advance executive orders from President Barack Obama. Council member David Reddick said on Thursday that Doggrell was run off from a job at the sheriff’s office for allegedly placing a sticker with Confederate imagery on a deputy cruiser. “This is a person with a long history of being a secessionist,” Reddick told reporters. Doggrell said in the video that the biggest threat to law enforcement officers is wayward leadership and made critical remarks about the militarization of police forces.
The two officers were placed on paid administrative, something Rimpsey said made him and others uncomfortable. Baker said those overseeing the investigation, including five of the seven members of the Anniston Citizen Police Advisory Council, understand the decision, however, since the allegations against the officers does not involve gross misconduct. Rimpsey said he was told by Anniston City Manager Brian Johnson that the city does not have an established policy regarding affiliations of police officers with alleged hate groups. “They will be moving forward to establish something,” Rimpsey said.
“Let’s have an overall dialogue about whats going on in the community and around the country today,” said Council member Seyram Selase, urging residents to direct their energy toward contacting elected officials. “We are not taking this lightly,” said Selase. “We will look for an immediate remedy to this situation.”