[Tulsa Police Department\Major Travis Yates]
Yates made his comments during a segment called “Behind the Blue Line” on The Pat Campbell Show, which airs on local AM radio station KFAQ. He also contended that systemic racism in policing “just doesn’t exist.”
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A police commander in Oklahoma is “under review” after he said that officers are shooting African Americans “less than we probably ought to be” during a local radio interview.
The Tulsa Police Department denounced the comments made by Major Travis Yates, who is white, and Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum called Yates’ comments “dumb” and demanded an apology in a Facebook statement.
“Chief Wendell Franklin and the Tulsa Police Department want to make it very clear we do not endorse, condone or support Yates’ comments made on the show,” the department said in a Facebook post on Wednesday, adding “This matter has been referred to our Internal Affairs Unit.”
“He does not speak for my administration, for the Tulsa Police Department, or the City of Tulsa,” Bynum said.
Yates made his comments during a segment called “Behind the Blue Line” on The Pat Campbell Show, which airs on local AM radio station KFAQ. He also contended that systemic racism in policing “just doesn’t exist.”
During the interview, Yates said advocates against police brutality have “made regular Americans believe that cops are just hunting Blacks down in the street and killing them. And it’s completely the opposite of what the research says and what the data says.”
“All the research said — including Roland Fryer, an African American Harvard professor, Heather MacDonald and the National Academy of Sciences — all of their research says we’re shooting African-Americans about 24% less than we probably ought to be based on the crimes being committed,” Yates said.
For the rest of this USA Today story log on to: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/11/oklahoma-cop-black-americans-ought-be-shot-more/5346864002/
Editor’s Note: Officer Yates’ racist statement is happening behind the backdrop of several emerging instances of police brutality and murder in Oklahoma. For example, the police murder of Derrick Scott, 42, is now being reported on because of just-released body-cam footage. Scott was murdered while he was being arrested by at least three officers on May 20, 2019. His dying words were: “I can’t breathe.” One callous officer’s response was “I don’t care.”
