Top NH Cop Resigns After Calling Obama the N-Word

A New Hampshire police commissioner has resigned after he admitted using a racial slur to describe President Obama, a Wolfeboro town official said today. Robert Copeland, 82, resigned last night from the post to which he was re-elected in March, putting to rest a controversy that drew national attention and sparked impassioned debate in the resort town of 6,300 on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee. "The town is pleased," Board of Selectmen Chair Linda Murray says. "This gives us the opportunity to move on. We are a very accepting community that really takes care of each other."

Copeland admitted using the n-word, preceded by an obscenity, while he was at a restaurant in March. A resident overheard him and complained to town officials when she learned that Copeland was a police commissioner, but he refused to apologize even as more than 100 residents pushed for his ouster at a meeting last week. Mitt Romney, who owns a home in the town, called for Copeland's resignation, saying, "The vile epithet used and confirmed by the commissioner has no place in our community: He should apologize and resign." (More n-word stories.)