Homophobic South Carolina Mayor Blocks Lesbian Police Chief From Being Reinstated

In what can only be seen as a last ditch attempt at governmental bigotry, Mayor Earl Bullard of Latta, S.C. effectively blocked Crystal Moore from being reinstated as police chief.

According to Huffington Post, Bullard declared that he had hired a new police chief, Freddie Davis, Monday. This was done just outside of the 60-day waiting period for hiring a new police chief imposed by the city council.

“I have went from ecstatic, overwhelmed, not able to speak to crushed again,” Moore told WPDE NewsChannel 15.

Bullard reportedly says the hiring of Davis was not motivated by selfish reasons. Rather, Bullard claims he made the decision to hire Davis last week and had interviewed seven different candidates before making his decision

“The town has to continue,” Bullard told WPDE NewsChannel 15. “The town has to go on we can’t dwell on what happened in the past. The only thing we can do is try to move forward.”

Bullard claimed the only way the town can move on is to put someone in power permanently. This declaration was made one day after the town voted to reinstate Moore and change the town government from strong-mayor, weak-council to weak-mayor, strong-council.

Residents voted on a referendum Tuesday that reinstated Moore and stripped the mayor of some power. The referendum will not be official until Friday. Seems Bullard jumped at the opportunity to flex the last muscle he will have as mayor.

The mayor fired Crystal Moore as police chief in April 15 for reasons that many residents say were antigay. Although the mayor denies the firing was homophobic in nature, he was caught on tape in an antigay rant around the same time as Moore’s termination.
Click here to listen to the audio clip of Mayor Bullard.