Cop who shot college football player resigns after racist text messages are exposed

I'm sure that this cop was just one bad apple.

 

Racist cop?

<- My shocked face

 

Aside from the racist bs. Something else jumps off the page.

Look at that crazy attitude about the legal case.

He doesn’t care who wins the case because of qualified immunity. He also lays that out in black and white. He knows taxpayers will pay for his incompetence/racism, not him. He literally sees no possibility of personal consequences.

 

The kind of cop DeSantis wants to give a bonus to to relocate to Florida and be racist here

 

How can you be sure he meant "I hate black people" in a racist way?

 

I'm not sure what policy/procedure would have there, but while the guy opening the door did appear to have a gun, he didn't appear to be yielding it in a threatening capacity. Almost seemed surprised that the police were there. The fact that this guy took the gun away from somebody else shouldn't be something that he gets penalized for when the police show up. Frustrating that the police officer thinks he did nothing wrong.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

Exactly. It's so ambiguous.

Seriously, it does touch on the de facto hermeneutic commonly used, which is that there is no actual current racism, other then racism against white people, so when we encounter a statement like this, we first must presume that he's not actually racist, and search for some other explanation or interpretation for his words and actions that is inconsistent with the fact that he's racist, which can never be the explanation.

That is actually the way the majority tends to think.

 

Gotta wonder just how many other cops think like this man and have messages like these.

 

I'm sure he's the only one. It's just so unfortunate the way it keeps happening that the sole racist cops are those that just happen to have what they believe to be private sentiments publicly disclosed. It's amazingly coincidental.

 

Or when the Sheriff/Chief think and act like this. Or when these messages are exchanged by officers about minority officers in their own departments. It's pretty well documented, including minority officers being passed up for promotions.

 

The first one that pops into my head immediately is Sheriff Jody Greene out of North Carolina.

 

Sheriff: “I’m sick of these Black bastards.... Every Black that I know, you need to fire him...”

Greene wanted to know who in the department had communicated with Lewis Hatcher, the former sheriff whom Greene had narrowly defeated in the election, and Melvin Campbell, a recently-fired sergeant, both of whom are African American. In Greene’s words, they had a “snitch” in the office, leaking information to his political opponent who had sued to be reinstated until the election protests were resolved.

“I’m sick of it. I’m sick of these Black bastards,” said Greene said to Soles. “I’m going to clean house and be done with it. And we’ll start from there.”

“This one particular phone call that received, he made the comment that he hated Democrats. And then he said, ‘I take that back. I hate a Black f***ing Democrat.’ And, and I knew right then, I was like, ‘Wow, this is coming from the sheriff.’ And, I had to start recording those conversations,” Soles said of the moments before he hit record on the phone call.

“We’ll cut the snake’s head f**king off. Period. And Melvin Campbell is as big a snake as Lewis Hatcher ever dared to be. Every Black that I know, you need to fire him to start with, he’s a snake,” Greene says before ending the phone call.

 

Qualified immunity should be able to have other circumstances brought into it like these racist texts to determine if it applies. It would give more legitimacy to the charges against him so they don't get away with it.

 

I've got a big post I'll have to post when I get home. Too much to be done on my phone, and too vile to be using my work PC...

 

Agree with the “commonly used” which is a reasonable and defendable statement. Dubious about the “we first must” statement… I don’t feel so compelled. Disagree with the never and majority statements until backed up with real data. I think that the prevalence of the use of absolutes is what has this country so divided.

 

I do think he's racist. Otherwise, I am describing with slight hyperbole what I have observed, especially with "never" thinking he could actually be racist, although it's close to "never" for majority opinion.

In terms of empirical support for contending that the "majority" being of the mindset that we should never believe police are racist notwithstanding compelling evidence to the contrary, I am basing that on the fact that after there was an appetite for reform shortly after George Floyd was murdered, very little occurred, and now there is no appetite for reform. Really the opposite, as demonstrated by the political stances of our governor and the leading Presidential candidates for both parties, one who celebrates police abuse and racism in law enforcement, and the other who is careful about making public statements that could be construed as supporting reform or opposition to race based policing. I am presuming they are reading public sentiment with some accuracy.

I presume that the elected class has accurately identified that the majority of the electorate, really going across both parties even if more prevalent in one, believe there was "too much" reform, even though there was hardly any, that they are tired of hearing about police abuse, especially "irritating" demonstrations or public stances. And that they will penalize any elected official who tries to limit police freedom of action, possibly not because they like the actual abuse, but because they don't want the police to hold back in enforcing divides, even if they think they the voters are enlightened and without malice.

As I have said here often, despite my regular criticism of police, two factors justify in part some of what I consider misconduct. First, we are awash in guns, and police are not paranoid in believing everyone they encounter is armed. Second, to the extent they routinely harass and "keep in their place" disfavored minorities, they are doing what the larger public expects of them, even many of those that consider themselves "liberal".

 

He seems nice.