Aubrey Gregory has filed a discrimination lawsuit against his department after being demoted for using the N-word. Two Black people who used the insulting word during a training session, according to the former Louisville Metro Police major, were not reprimanded.
According to WDRB, Gregory, who is white and retired after being shot during a protest, was demoted from major to lieutenant last June after LMPD Chief Erika Shields told Louisville Metro Council members he used the N-word during training in an attempt to make a teaching point that “went totally south.”
Gregory, who became the director of the LMPD’s Training Academy in March, walked in on a conversation between two Black men “regarding the use of a racial epithet” during a recruiting class on “isms” like racism, sexism, implicit bias, and cultural diversity in May 2021, according to documents obtained by the outlet.
According to the lawsuit, “one of the individuals was from Africa, and the other was a retired firefighter.” “The man who had moved from Africa indicated that he had been instructed not to use the word because it was derogatory when he immigrated to the United States.”
The man stated that the phrase was not considered insulting in his home country because it meant black. That’s when the former firefighter in the conversation mentioned that the word has several meanings in the United States. According to the lawsuit, “this employee remarked to the class that they had best be prepared because they were going to hear this slur in specific Metro communities.” Gregory “has worked some of these neighborhoods for years; he can tell you,” he allegedly claimed.
Georgy and his lawyer, on the other hand, said he just said the word as part of a conversation, proving that the disparaging epithet could have several meanings. “Yes, [the racist term] will be heard out there.” It might imply family or a kinship of shared hardship, but it can also mean the most insulting, nasty word you’ll ever hear. Nonetheless, you will hear it,” the former LMPD officer asserted in the lawsuit.
After meeting with many colleagues, the individual claims he was urged to resign. No one, however, thought the Plaintiff (Gregory) was attempting to be disparaging. ” Gregory was later interviewed by a representative from Louisville Metro Government Human Resources. They noted that his account “fit what other people she interviewed had stated.”
Despite this, he was demoted, and he stated that the other men had never been penalized. According to WHAS11, Gregory is now suing the LMPD, Shields, and Mayor Greg Fischer. The former training division major is seeking a jury trial, as well as damages for “loss of income, embarrassment, humiliation, and mental agony.”
In a statement at a July council committee hearing, Shields said, “I have an expectation on how they conduct themselves. I’m trying to drive this department forward, and there are certain things I cannot have commanders doing, and this is one of them.”
