Jackson assistant fire chief demoted over video

Published 8:45 am Saturday, January 5, 2008

JACKSON (AP) — An assistant fire chief has been demoted after allegedly appearing in a 13-year-old video that a Jackson firefighters’ union official claimed made fun of blacks.

Fire Chief Vernon Hughes said at a news conference Friday that he had concluded that the person who appeared on tape was Assistant Chief Todd Chandler, despite Chandler’s insistence that he was not in the videotape.

Chandler’s was demoted to captain and reassigned to the division that supplies air tanks to firefighters, Hughes said.

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The videotape, made in 1994, is a video tour of Station 12. One clip shows a Confederate flag on a blackboard. Then comes a segment showing a firefighter, who Local 87 firefighters union President Brandon Falcon said is Chandler, using phrases and gestures associated with derogatory stereotyping of blacks as he imitates a black firefighter.

Falcon, who distributed the videotape to several media outlets, would not say who gave it to him.

Chandler is a 22-year veteran of the fire department.

The Jackson Fire Department now is about 72 percent black, Hughes said.

Hughes, who is black, said he would name a new assistant chief soon.