By Police1 Staff
CRANFORD, N.J. — The video of a phone call recorded nearly a decade ago in which a police chief said his new position was going well as he “didn’t have to kill any white people” that day has been pulled from YouTube.
“GazeeboBricks,” who posted the video, received an email Tuesday from the video sharing site, saying it had been flagged by viewers as inappropriate, and subsequently deleted.
In the call, Cranford Police Chief Eric Mason and his adult son talk about how his new position as the town’s first black chief was going.
“So far, so good,” he said.
“Yeah?” his son asked.
“Didn’t have to kill any white people,” Mason said.
During a committee meeting March 13, in which he voiced disappointment over the tape’s release, Mason said, “The comments depicted in a personal telephone conversation between me and my son over eight years ago are not indicative of the career I have had or the person that I am.”
“I regret if anyone was offended and I am disappointed that someone would try to exploit a personal conversation from over eight years ago for their personal gain.”
The conversation in the video “appears to reflect a joke between a father and son meant to diffuse a tense situation in the wake of Mason’s appointment as police chief,” according to the Cranford Patch.
The clip surfaced a day after Mason announced his plans to retire as police chief on May 31 and take on the full-time role as township administrator.