Anniston Upholds Firing of Police Officer Tied to League of the South

Nearly three months after Lt. Josh Doggrell was fired from the Anniston Police Department for his ties to the neo-Confederate League of the South (LOS), the city this week upheld his dismissal.

Doggrell was fired from the Anniston Police Department three months ago after an exlusive Hatewatch report on a speech he gave at the 2013 LOS national conference, entitled “Cultivating the Good Will of Peace Officers.”

In the speech, Doggrell contended that leadership in the Anniston Police Department was well aware of his LOS membership and the “radicals [he] cavort[s] with on the weekends.” In the same speech, he told his audience that his superiors had assured him that they “pretty much think the same way [he] does.”

The League, a secessionist group that aims to establish a white, Christian ethnostate across the south, espouses blatantly racist beliefs as well as increasingly radical antigovernment rhetoric. In recent years, the organization has created a uniformed, paramilitary wing known as the “Indomitables” tasked with advancing a second southern secession by any means necessary.

After hearing testimony from former Anniston police chiefs and LOS members, including the group’s president Michael Hill, the city’s Civil Service Board took a day to rule against Doggrell’s appeal.

As expected, League leadership reacted with outrage.

“Absolutely incredible!” William Flowers, vice chairman of the LOS chapter in Georgia wrote Friday on Facebook. “These degenerate scoundrels will pay for their treachery, one way or another, God will not be mocked, rest assured.”

In a phone interview with the Anniston Star, Doggrell said he intended to appeal the board’s decision to the Calhoun Circuit Court.

“We appreciate the board’s serious consideration of the matter,” Anniston City Attorney Bruce Downey said. “If there is an appeal, which is Mr. Doggrell’s right, the city will defend the board’s decision.”