In the hot seat: Montgomery County Judge Wayne Shelton on Thursday launched a tirade in court arguing that young black men are 'more effective' at killing each other than the Ku Klux Klan

A white Tennessee judge has come under fire after delivering an impassioned diatribe concerning black-on-black violence, in which he argued that young African-American men are 'more effective' at killing each other than the Ku Klux Klan.

Montgomery County Judge Wayne Shelton made the controversial remarks on Thursday during a preliminary hearing of Vincent Merriweather, 26, who is accused of taking part in a shooting in Clarksville on November 19, 2018, which left 22-year-old Antorius Gallion dead.

Merrieweather, his co-defendants Cedrick Stacker, 23, and Marques Lamarr Kelly, 25, and the victim are all black.

‘I'm tired of seeing young black me shooting at each other,’ Judge Shelton was recorded saying in court. ‘I grew up in a time where people wore white robes and they shot at black people. And now we see young black men wearing black hoodies shooting at black men, and doing much more effective job than the Klan ever thought about doing.

Shelton made his remarks while presiding over the preliminary hearing of Vincent Merriweather (left), 26, who is accused of taking part in a fatal shooting along with Marques Kelly (center), 25 and Cedrick Stacker (right), 23

‘I'm sick of it. Of course the only thing I can do is shout it from here, [but] no one seems to listen.’

It was not the veteran jurist’s first time addressing crime among African-Americans from the bench and invoking the KKK, reported The Leaf-Chronicle.

While presiding over a hearing in 2015 concerning the shooting death of a Clarksville man at the hands of two teenage brothers, Wayne said, 'black lives matter.'

He went on to lament that black men are killing other black men over something as trivial as perceived disrespect.

‘The Klan doesn’t exist anymore,’ he said at the time. ‘Who doesn’t care about black lives now? I’ll let you answer that. I’m tired of black men killing black men. If I offended anyone...I can’t help it.’

In an interview with The Leaf-Chronicle, Wayne, who has sat on the bench since 1979, said that one of his ancestors was a free man of color in the 1860s, and that he is disgusted by what he recognizes as a disregard for human life.

The November 19, 2018, in Clarksville left 22-year-old Antorius Gallion (left and right) dead

While many critics have labeled Judge Shelton a racist on Twitter over his screed, Jimmie Garland, president of the Clarksville branch of the NAAC, has come to his defense.

‘My initial reaction was, he was on point,’ Garland told WSMV. ‘He's telling the young people, “Stop killing yourself. Stop doing the job that, back in the early 30's and 20's and 10's, they [Klansmen] did wearing robes and wearing pointed caps.’

Another person who has spoken out in support of Shelton was his own son, Tennessee businessman and activist David Shelton, who argued in an op-ed penned for The Leaf-Chronicle that his father's lecture, while 'not kind,' came from a place of love and should be used as a teaching moment.

‘Dad has a long history of working for inclusion to the point of being called an N-word lover many times,’ the younger Shelton wrote. ‘I know him well enough to know that when he boils over something asinine, he doesn’t hold back.’

He continued: ‘Dad saw firsthand how black families were terrorized by the KKK, and he sees every day how those same black families are terrorized by their own children.’

Judge Shelton graduated from the University of Memphis Law School in 1973. He was most recently re-elected as a judge for the Montgomery County General Sessions Court in 2014 for a term that expires in 2022.