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A Metro Nashville police officer has been decommissioned while the department investigates an allegation that he shouted a homophobic slur at two men in another vehicle last week.
Luke Watson, a co-founder of Third Coast Comedy Club and The Silo Market, posted the allegation on Wednesday night and included the vehicle identification number. He told the Banner that he and another man were in the back of a rideshare vehicle on the way home from a date when an MNPD SUV pulled up next to them.
Upon seeing the officer “glaring” at him, Watson said he raised his middle finger. In response, Watson said, the officer shone his flashlight at the driver and ordered him to put the windows down. At that point, Watson said, the officer cursed and yelled a homophobic slur at the men before driving off.
“Cops that have a lethal weapon on them should have a thick enough skin to handle a member of the public flicking them off,” Watson said.
He told the Banner that two MNPD detectives came to speak to him on Thursday after the department learned of the allegation. “We are taking this matter very seriously,” MNPD spokesperson Don Aaron wrote in an email to the Banner. “The officer has been decommissioned (non-punitive) while the investigation is in progress.”
This article first appeared on Nashville Banner and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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