CHADBOURN, N.C. (WECT) – Chadbourn Town Council held a special closed meeting at town hall on Wednesday night to discuss “specific town personnel.”RELATED: NC police officer fired following backlash over Facebook post
The meeting came after Ricky Soles, a Chadbourn police officer, was fired Tuesday after backlash over a Facebook post.
Soles posted the controversial statement to his personal Facebook page Sunday.
The meeting remained in session for more than an hour with a brief moment where town council opened the door once to ask the public to settle down. Demonstrators stood outside town hall to show their support for their police force and police chief. They held signs saying, “Save our town. Save our chief.”
One of the supporters outside said that the chief should not take any of the blame.RELATED: NC police officer’s Facebook post prompts investigation
“He did not condone what the gentleman did. It’s you make your bed, you lie in it. The chief should not have to pay for someone else’s actions that he did not condone. He didn’t tell him to do it,” stated Marie Kelley.
Town council members were tight lipped after they came out of session. Some members of the public expressed concerns that the police department in Chadbourn was going to be disbanded. The mayor said, however, that was not the purpose of the meeting and has not been discussed,
One community member said she was there to support law enforcement, and wanted the town to come together during this time.
“There’s always going to be crime and we need to feel that were safe in any community, whether it’s black neighborhood, a white neighborhood, it doesn’t matter. It’s not about race, it’s about feeling safe in in your home that you’re proud of,” she said.
