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Officer who said ‘I don’t care about your people’ resigns

ATLANTA – A white police officer who told a black driver “I don’t care about your people” has resigned in suburban Atlanta.

On Friday, Cobb County police released Officer Maurice Lawson’s resignation letter. It was dated Thursday and submitted to Chief John Houser.

Lawson had been suspended without pay for two weeks after completing a 16-hour training class on de-escalation.

In dashcam video of the Nov. 16 incident, Lawson gives Brian Baker two citations. Lawson then says, “Leave. Go away. Go to Fulton County.” Atlanta is in neighbouring Fulton County.

Lawson can then be heard asking Baker whether he wants to get out of the car to “talk with” him. Houser wrote in a Jan. 15 memo to Lawson that those words could be seen as “an invitation for a possible altercation.”

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