Interim police chief says she hasn’t experienced racism

PORTSMOUTH, Va. – An interim black Virginia police chief says she hasn’t experienced racism in the department her predecessor resigned from last week.

The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk reports interim Portsmouth Police Chief Angela Greene spoke at a public forum on Wednesday and said she didn’t know Tonya Chapman was going to resign or what led to it.

Chapman was the first black woman to lead a city police force in Virginia. She says she was forced out and accused a small group of officers of “bias and acts of systemic racism, discriminatory practices and abuse of authority.”

Chapman says attempts to change the culture were met with resistance from people within the department, some of whom she said “did not like taking direction from an African American female.”

Greene joined the department in 2016.

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Information from: The Virginian-Pilot, http://pilotonline.com