A police commissioner in a New Hampshire town says he will not apologize for calling President Barack Obama the n-word as angry residents at a meeting called for his resignation on Thursday.

Wolfeboro Police Commissioner Robert Copeland acknowledged that he referred to Obama as an n-word in an email to co-workers. 

From Associated Press:

Town resident Jane O’Toole, who moved to Wolfeboro four months ago, said she overheard Copeland say the slur at a restaurant in March and wrote to the town manager about it. Copeland, in an email to her, acknowledged using the slur in referring to the president and said he will not apologize.

“I believe I did use the ‘N’ word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse,” Copeland said in the email to his fellow police commissioners, part of which he forwarded to O’Toole. “For this, I do not apologize — he meets and exceeds my criteria for such.”

Read more at Associated Press

About 20 black people live in Wolfeboro, a town of 6,300 residents in the central part of New Hampshire. The state is 94 percent white and 1 percent black. None of the town’s 12 full-time police officers are black or a member of any other minority group. One part-time officer is black.

Town Manager David Owen said that while he finds Copeland’s comment “reprehensible,” he has no authority to remove an elected official.

More than 100 people called for Copeland’s resignation during a meeting at the Wolfeboro Public Library on Thursday due to the comments. Officials have no plan of asking him to resign.

Thoughts on the remarks and officials’ handling of the situation?

Sound off below!