The Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- The Charleston branch of the NAACP wants Police Chief Reuben Greenberg to be fired if he does not apologize for a profane comment he made about homicide among blacks.
In a newspaper article last week, the chief, who is black, said there was little the city could do to combat the growing rate of black men killing other black men.
“We come today as people who have tried to be patient with Chief Greenberg,” Dot Scott, president of the Charleston branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Friday. “We cannot and will not be patient any more.”
Charleston Police Department spokesman Charles Francis said neither the chief nor the department had a response to the demands by the civil rights organization.
Greenberg’s comment also drew fire from three black City Council members, although Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. has defended Greenberg, saying the chief’s statement was taken “somewhat out of context” and reflected his frustration about the growing homicide rate in the city.