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Michigan Police Officer With KKK Memorabilia In His Home Has Been Fired

Police Officer Charles Anderson
Muskegon, MI — Charles Anderson, a Michigan police offi­cer, was dis­cov­ered to have kept and dis­played a KKK mem­o­ra­bil­ia in his home. He has been fired since it went pub­lic when Rob Mathis, a prospec­tive home­buy­er who is Black, saw the items and post­ed about it on Facebook. 

Last month, Rob Mathis and his wife were tour­ing Anderson’s home that was for sale when they saw a framed KKK doc­u­ment with a title “Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Application for Citizenship.” Mathis, who is also an Army vet­er­an, imme­di­ate­ly shared it on a now-viral Facebook post, say­ing he felt disgusted.

“I feel sick to my stom­ach know­ing that I walk to the home of one of the most racist peo­ple in Muskegon hid­ing behind his uni­form and pos­si­bly harass­ing peo­ple of col­or and dif­fer­ent nation­al­i­ties,” Mathis said in the post, adding that he also saw Confederate flags through­out the home.

Mathis did not divulge Anderson’s name on the post but com­menters iden­ti­fied him. The Muskegon Police Department, where Anderson had been serv­ing as a police offi­cer for 20 years, acknowl­edged the post and said that Anderson could be “in pos­ses­sion of cer­tain items asso­ci­at­ed with a white suprema­cy group.” He was placed on leave pend­ing an inves­ti­ga­tion since August 8.

Moreover, the recent inci­dent could reopen a case in 2009 where Anderson fatal­ly shot Julius Allen-Ray Johnson, a 23-year old unarmed Black man. Back then, he was cleared of any wrong­do­ing since it was ruled that he act­ed in self-defense. But the results of the inves­ti­ga­tion could change that.

“Whether or not offi­cer Anderson has racist ten­den­cies or not, would that move the nee­dle one way or anoth­er?” Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J. Hilson told MLive in August. “I guess I can’t answer that ques­tion. I don’t know. I need a com­plet­ed inter­nal investigation.”

It has yet been known if the case would be reopened now that Anderson is already terminated.

Although it was not specif­i­cal­ly stat­ed in the Muskegon Police Department Policy and Procedure Order that pri­vate dis­play of racist mate­ri­als is ille­gal, it high­lights that offi­cers should not act in a way that would com­pro­mise pub­lic trust.

“Police offi­cers will, there­fore, avoid any con­duct that might com­pro­mise integri­ty and thus under­cut the pub­lic con­fi­dence in the offi­cer or this law or this law enforce­ment agency,” it said.