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Nelsonville City Council Fires Police Officer Accused Of Racist Social Media Posts
By: Allison Hunter, WOUB Staff Writer
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The Nelsonville police officer accused of racist social media posts and threatening comments is now out of a job.
After about 15 minutes in executive session during Wednesday’s city council meeting, the city manager, Chuck Barga recommended Joshua Braglin be fired for violating the city’s social media policy.
Nelsonville City Council members unanimously approved the recommendation.
“It took a long time in some people’s eyes. But when you fire a public employee in the state of Ohio, they have due process rights,” City Council Member Greg Smith said. “My main worry was that when the fella is fired, he would have no court case he could win. And we didn’t want to take an employee back who did something that he was accused of, that was horrendous.”
The city’s social media policy states “employees of the Nelsonville Police Department shall not use any form of social media…in any way so as to tarnish the office’s reputation.”
Braglin’s Facebook posts and comments were directed toward Hocking College’s interim police chief Tiffany Tims.
Members of the groups such as Stand Up for Racial Justice attended the meeting to protest Braglin’s behavior.
“Nobody wants Nelsonville to be thought of as a racist place, and there’s nobody in the city that wants a reputation for that,” Smith said.