Top Tulsa police officer says ‘we’re shooting African Americans about 24% less than we probably ought to be’ in shocking interview, police Maj. Travis Yates claimed ‘there’s no systemic racism in the police force’
Tulsa police brass goes tone deaf in shocking interview claiming there’s no systemic racism in the police force
Maj. Travis Yates with the TPD said ‘we’re shooting African Americans about 24% less than we probably ought to be based on crimes’
He said the shocking comments in an interview on the Pat Campbell radio show on Monday speaking on policing and race
Citing data from the Washington Post he said 24% of police shootings killed black people and of that group 2% were unarmed
Maj. Yates condemned protests for George Floyd saying justice has already been served since Derek Chauvin, the white cop who killed him, Derek Chauvin, is already in jail
He claimed there’s no systemic racism in policing saying: ‘It doesn’t exist’
Back in 2018 Yates in a letter to the Mayor of Tulsa said disproportionate policing in black neighborhoods was not racism
Police presence there was the result of ‘fatherless homes,’ Yates wrote
Foot and mouth disease: Maj. Travis Yates [photo], with the Tulsa Police Dept said ‘we’re shooting African Americans about 24% less than we probably ought to be based on crimes’ in a radio interview on the Pat Campbell show on Monday
‘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.’
When you look at law enforcement contact, if a certain group is creating more crimes, more violent crimes, and law enforcement contact with them, that number is going to be higher,’ he said.
‘All of their research says we’re shooting African Americans about 24 percent less than we probably ought to be based on the crimes actually being committed,’ he added based on his interpretation of the data.
Protesters [photo], in Tulsa, Oklahoma Saturday May 30. Yates condemned protests for George Floyd saying justice has already been served as the white cop who killed him, Derek Chauvin, is already in jail
Protesters [photo],are seen lying down on Interstate 44 in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday during a George Floyd protest
‘Since 2015 until yesterday out of all the African Americans shot unarmed it was two percent and out of all the whites unarmed was three percent. So we’re literally shooting more unarmed whites,’ he said.
‘By the way if we’re shooting people off of behavior and not off race it should be even, and it’s pretty darn close, even,’ he added.
Yates condemned the peaceful protests breaking out across the country to decry police brutality and demand justice for George Floyd – the 46-year-old black man who was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer after he dug his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
According to Yates, having Derek Chauvin, the officer behind the killing arrested, in itself, is justice itself.
‘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,’ he said. ‘Well, then it turned into systematic racism, systematic police brutality,’ he added.
He doubled down saying: ‘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.’
Yates explained that he’s against the movement to defund the police department saying ‘Of course I don’t support it.’
But his outspoken stance on policing and race has landed him in hot water with the public.
‘I received two death threats over the weekend, and if this is a viable threat, you better bring your friends, cause it’s not going to be pretty for you,’ he said.
‘I’m telling you facts, I’m telling you data and this is dangerous, the people who are trying to lie to the American public. I in no way want to put my department in the lime light and make them look bad but I think the American public deserves to know the truth,’ he added.
Tulsa police brass Travis Yates claimed there’s no systemic racism in policing saying: ‘It doesn’t exist’. In In 2018 he wrote an open letter to Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum saying that disproportionate policing in black neighborhoods was not racism and said the police presence there was the result of ‘fatherless homes’
This is not Yates unconscionable outburst on police brutality. In 2016 he wrote another shocking essay saying: ‘Follow the commands of a police officer or risk dying’
Also in 2016 he wrote another shocking essay saying: ‘Follow the commands of a police officer or risk dying.’
In his piece he said: ‘Would we even know where Ferguson was if Michael Brown would have simply got out of the street like the officer had asked him to do?”‘
Yates’ essay led the police chief to transfer him and condemn his message.
In 2018 he wrote an open letter to Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum saying that disproportionate policing in black neighborhoods was not racism and said the police presence there was the result of ‘fatherless homes’
On Tuesday Tulsa Police Department Capt. Richard Meulenberg said ‘everybody’s got a right to their own opinion’ and said Yates was speaking for himself, not the Tulsa Police force.
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