SHEFFIELD LAKE, Ohio – A Black officer who received a Ku Klux Klan sign on his desk from the city’s police chief said Thursday that he was humiliated by the gesture and believed it was part of a pattern of racial discrimination.
The June 25 incident prompted then-Chief Anthony Campo to resign.
“It was so demeaning that, in the moment, I just didn’t know how to react to it,” Officer Keith Pool told reporters in a Zoom call with his attorneys, his first public statements on the incident. “I felt like I’d been hit with a sledgehammer. Chief Campo thought putting the words, ‘Ku Klux Klan’ sign on my rain jacket and then wearing the Ku Klux Klan hat was something of a joke.”
Pool said he would have rather been hit by the chief than go through the embarrassment he endured.
“It was not a funny joke,” he said. “It was offensive and humiliating, beyond anything I’ve ever experienced in my entire life.”
Pool, who spoke with his attorneys Joseph C. Peiffer and Ashlie Case Sletvold, is the first Black officer in the Sheffield Lake department.
Attempts to reach Campo were unsuccessful. He was with the department for 33 years and served as chief for eight. Pool said he has not seen Campo since the incident and has not received an apology from him.
Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer reached out to Sheffield Lake Mayor Dennis Bring and Sheffield Lake Law Director David Graves after Pool’s call with reporters.
Pool and his attorneys announced Thursday that they had filed a discrimination charge against the city of Sheffield Lake with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. The attorneys said they also filed a petition with the Ohio Supreme Court to push the city to provide public documents showing the race-based harassment carried out by Campo.
Pool and his attorneys said this incident was not the first racist act Campo did while on duty.
Sheffield Lake police Officer Keith Pool (top right) speaks with media for the first time after then-Police Chief Anthony Campo put Ku Klux Klan sign on his desk. With Pool are his attorneys Joseph C. Peiffer and Ashlie Case Sletvold.Kaylee Remington
Some of the other incidents include Campo sending a Hispanic officer a picture of the officer on a hot sauce bottle wearing a sombrero, Case Sletvold said. Pool also was sent a photo of a vehicle with large rims and heavily-tinted windows with his last name on the side saying, “It would be his police vehicle,” she added.
Pool said this kind of harassment cannot continue in the workplace.
“All I want to do is help people,” he said. “I take pride in making people happy. I try to be proactive more than reactive. That’s my job. I love helping people.”
Pool, who choked back tears, said he has been in law enforcement for more than 30 years and is in disbelief that this happened to him.
“This (June incident) didn’t happen out of nowhere,” Pool said. “It wasn’t Chief Campo’s first time doing something racist, and it never should have gotten to the point that Chief Campo felt comfortable of making a joke about the Ku Klux Klan in our workplace.”
The incident on June 25 was captured on surveillance video in the police department’s booking area.
Campo walked into the room with a piece of paper in his hand that said “Ku Klux Klan.” He walked to a desk and put the note on a yellow jacket laid out to resemble the hood and robe, which are synonymous with the hate group.
Pool entered and saw the note.
“My exact words were, ‘Are you serious?’” he said.
Days after the incident, Bring told reporters: “How can you possibly think that you can put something on somebody’s jacket like that, especially if they were African American, and think this is a joke? This is the most egregious and offensive thing you could possibly do. And it’s embarrassing and disgusting.”
Andrew Kory is the city’s new police chief.
Before working in Sheffield Lake, Pool also served in LaGrange, Sheffield Village and Grafton. He had no issues at those departments, Pool said.
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