PORTLAND, Ore. — The former police chief of a small town in Oregon is being investigated by the state over allegations from his own officers that he made racist remarks, including comparing African-Americans to monkeys, authorities said on Wednesday.
Clatskanie Police Chief Marvin Hoover retired last month following the accusations, which came after a black woman was arrested and threatened to sue his department for racism and discrimination, according to a complaint to the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST).
State officials confirmed that an investigation was underway but would not elaborate or release the complaint, which was published online by local broadcaster KOIN-TV.
“DPSST has an active investigation involving this individual. As such, we will not release any information regarding this case at this time pursuant to Oregon Revised Statute,” Linsay Hale, professional standards division director, said in a statement.
Officer Alexander Stone of the Clatskanie Police Department, who filed the formal complaint against his boss along with a fellow officer in July, said Hoover twice interrupted him while a group of officers chatted in a break room and he was describing for the chief the woman’s concerns about her arrest.
Stone said Hoover called the woman an animal, compared African-Americans to monkeys and did monkey gestures, beating his chest and scratching his armpits, and that he sang “Dixie” and mimed punching someone before laughing and leaving the room.
“As Chief Hoover was comparing African-Americans to monkeys, I began to become extremely uncomfortable. I have never been in a work environment where a manager, especially an executive officer, is openly racist,” Stone wrote in the complaint.
Clatskanie is a town of about 2,000 people, located 60 miles northwest of Portland.
Stone said that in response to the decision by him and another officer who was present, Zack Gibson, to accuse their chief, he was told by a superior that the city would likely “make life hell” for them both, according to the complaint.
Gibson wrote separately in the complaint that he had been in “disbelief” at his boss’s actions.
City officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Hoover, 56, who had been with the department for 16 years and was made chief in 2002, could not immediately be reached for comment.
