Cop Under Fire For Saying Research Suggests Police Shoot ‘Less Black People Than We Ought To’
A high-ranking Oklahoma police officer is under fire after suggesting that research shows that police shoot fewer black people than “we ought to.”
While speaking on the nationwide protests over the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, a white Tulsa Police Department major said that systemic racism in policing “just doesn’t exist.”
Per Public Radio Tulsa reports TPD Major Travis Yates said,
“You get this meme of, ‘Blacks are shot two times, two and half times more,’ and everybody just goes, ‘Oh, yeah,’” Yates said. “They’re not making sense here. You have to come into contact with law enforcement for that to occur.”
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If a “certain group” of individuals commit more crimes, then they will encounter police more often.
“Who in the world in their right mind would think that our shootings should be right along the US Census lines?” Yates asked. “That’s insanity.”
“All of the research says we’re shooting African-Americans about 24% less than we probably ought to be, based on the crimes being committed.”
Yates also spoke about his distaste for the ongoing protests.
“The officer was arrested the next day. They were prosecuted, they were fired. What are you doing? What do you mean, ‘justice?’ Justice at this point has been done,” Yates said. “Well, then it turned into systematic racism, systematic police brutality.
“This is what they’re trying to say that all these changes need to come from: this is why we’re protesting, this is why we’re rioting. Because of systematic abuse. That just doesn’t exist.”