David Edgmon, 24, a former Little Rock, Arkansas policeman is still out of work after an appellate court upheld his job dismissal, according to NBC’s affiliate KARK-4, the Arkansas Times and Opposing Views on Saturday. Edgmon, in a drunken state, called a man a “jigaboo” – and was caught on video doing so in 2010.
In the incident which cost Edgmon his job, he was arguing with a group of African-American men outside of Ernie Biggs Piano Bar. In the video, Edgmon can be seen and asking the men to quit blowing marijuana smoke in his face. His exact words were that he asked them to quit “blowing weed in my face.” He went on to say, after he knew that he was being video recorded, “Get out of my f---ing face. Get this illegal product, f---ing jigagoo s--- out of my f---king face.” Taking the infamous route of many career-ending incidents, the video ended up on YouTube.
The reason Edgmon was fired is because a Pulaski County Circuit Court asserted that he was guilty of engaging in conduct that is not becoming of a policeman, and engaging in personal conduct which could end up as criticism for the officer or the police department. Additionally, he was intoxicated in public view which made the matters worse for him.
In his own defense, Edgmon testified in court that he didn’t know the word “jigaboo” was offensive. Yet, at a hearing regarding the case, Police Chief Stuart Thomas said there was no doubt in his mind that Edgmon knew that the word is offensive.
Even though Edgmon’s appeal included a 1990 ruling in which a Caucasian police officer in Little Rock was at a Fraternal Order of Police’s Halloween party -with a black face and an afro wig – and only got a 90-day suspension, Appeals Court Judge Larry Vaught stated that that incident was too distant in time to serve as a precedent