Discussing nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, a white Tulsa Police Department major said Monday systemic racism in policing “just doesn’t exist.”
Speaking to talk radio host Pat Campbell on his podcast, TPD Maj. Travis Yates also suggested that, according to his interpretation of crime data, police should actually be shooting black Americans more frequently.
“You get this meme of, ‘Blacks are shot two times, two and a 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.
“If a certain group is committing more crimes, more violent crimes, and law enforcement’s having to come into more contact with them, that number is going to be higher. Who in the world in their right mind would think that our shootings should be right along the U.S. Census lines? 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 expressed displeasure with the largely peaceful protests that have been taking place in big cities and small towns all over the country since Floyd’s killing on May 25.
“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 of power and racism. That just doesn’t exist.”
Without evidence, Yates alleged that journalists and a group he declined to name have financial interests in lying about policing.
Source: Public Radio Tulsa
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