Defund Police protests
© REUTERS/Lawrence BryantProtesters across the US have demanded to 'defund the police' after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Major Travis Yates of Tulsa, Oklahoma is refusing to apologize and rejects accusations of racism, saying he was quoting research and not his personal opinion in a radio show appearance. The Tulsa PD has disavowed his remarks.

Yates made waves this week when his opinion piece about the wave of George Floyd protests went viral. "It's over America. You finally did it. You aren't going to have to abolish the police, we won't be around for it," he wrote in his piece, published by RT.


Comment: Abuse of power exist in every profession including Police Departments. It is the result of systematic process of Ponerization of the society that was in progress for many decades, particularly after 911. 'Getting rid of Police' instead of reforming it is like "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" and it will result in anarchy, destruction of livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people. Unfortunately, snowflake liberals and compliant authoritarian followers who outsourced their common sense to the authorities became cannon fodder to the deep state and PTB's intentions to overthrow Trump. They use agent provocateurs and left wing extremists like Antifa to ignite the fire and use MSM to spread the agenda to the masses.

Mr. Travis Yates recounts interesting details of his personal experience as a 3rd generation Police officer on how the world has changed over 27 years of career in his article.
After four years of college my dad wanted me at an agency that respected that education so I moved to Tulsa (Oklahoma) at 21 years old and never looked back.

I didn't know anyone and all I knew was what I saw my dad do, work hard and treat people with respect. I saw a lot of other cops working hard as well and doing all they could to keep the community safe.

27 years has passed and if you would have told me the condition of law enforcement today, I would have never believed you.

It's not that law enforcement has changed for the worse but everything around it has.

The mentally ill used to get treatment and now they just send cops. Kids used to be taught respect and now it's cool to be disrespectful.

Supervisors used to back you when you were right but now they accuse you of being wrong in order to appease crazy people.

Parents used to get mad at their kids for getting arrested and now they get mad at us.

The media used to highlight the positive contribution our profession gave to society and now they either ignore it or twist the truth for controversy to line their own pockets.

There used to be a common respect among criminals. If they got caught, they understood you had a job to do but now it's our fault they sit in handcuffs rather than their own personal decisions.

If someone attacked a cop, they were seen as such. Now we martyr them and sue for millions.

We used to be able to testify in court and we were believed. Now, unless there is video from three different angles, no one cares what you have to say.

With all this talk about racism and racist cops, I've never seen people treated differently because of their race. And while I know that cowards that have never done this job will call me racist for saying it, all I've ever seen was criminal behavior and cops trying to stop it and they didn't give a rip what their skin color was.

I've seen cops help and save any type of race, gender or ethnicity you can think of and while that used to mean something, no one cares anymore.

I've been called every name you can think of and many of them with racial overtones and it's never come from cops. I've watched African American cops take the brunt of this and even talked one rookie out of quitting after he was berated by a lot of cowards that had the same skin color as him.
...
Doctors kill 250,000 people a year. They call them "medical mistakes" because society understands that they do a very difficult job under high stress and they must make the best possible decision in the moment.

Law enforcement is tasked with the same and we are highly successful. Despite the most violent society we have ever seen, less than 1,000 suspects are killed a year. 96% are attacking us with weapons and all but a few others are attacking us with their cars or their fists and more and more with simulated guns so Benjamin Crump (an American civil rights attorney) can help their family win the lottery.

I've seen cops risk their own lives when they shouldn't have... just to keep from taking one.

They never get the credit that other professions get.

Cowards are all around us. From chiefs to sheriffs to politicians, no one has our back.

Now, the little we have, we are told they are going to defund us or even abolish us. Citizens with a political agenda will reign over us and all you have to do is wake up and put on a uniform to be a racist.

This weekend I received death threats for just doing my job. It would have been outrageous a decade ago and made national news.

Now, it's just a Monday.

There will be more threats, more accusations of racism and more lies told about us.

I used to talk cops out of leaving the job. Now I'm encouraging them.

It's over America. You finally did it.

You aren't going to have to abolish the police, we won't be around for it.

And while I know most Americans still appreciate us, it's not enough and the risk is too high.

Those of you that say thank you or buy the occasional meal, it means everything.

But those of you that were silent while the slow turning of the knives in our backs happened by thugs and cowards, this is on you.

Your belief in hashtags and memes over the truth has and will create an environment in your community that you will never expect.

If you think Minneapolis will never turn into Mogadishu - it's coming.

And when it does, remember what your complicity did.

This is the America that you made.



Tulsa Public Radio then took an interest in the outspoken officer, noting that Yates made an appearance on a KFAQ radio show on June 8. In their writeup, TPR claimed that the police major "suggested that, according to his interpretation of crime data, police should actually be shooting black Americans more frequently."

Even though Yates spoke in his personal capacity, the TPR story led to the Tulsa police department disavowing him. His statements "are not part of any curriculum or training provided by the Department. Yates' comments do not align with the mission, values, or policies of the Tulsa Police Department," the Tulsa PD said in a statement on Wednesday.

What TPR described as Yates's statement, however, was actually the police major quoting research by others - and saying that very clearly in the interview. The radio station has since updated the quote, but left the inflammatory headline up.

"I clearly prefaced this statement with attribution, and mentioned my sources by name. What I actually said — in mentioning research from Roland Fryer, Heather MacDonald, and the National Academy of Sciences — was that 'all of their research says.' Obviously, this is a serious, factual error of attribution," Yates said in a statement posted by KTUL-TV on Wednesday.


"Are you a racist?" KTUL reporter Maureen Wurtz asked Yates.

"Nah, that's ridiculous," he replied. "We've weaponized that word. Alright, if we don't like somebody, we use that word."

"Are you saying that African Americans aren't being shot enough?" asked Wurtz.

"That is absolutely nuts. I'm amazed that anybody would even ponder that," said Yates. "That's crazy. I was citing data that said they're underrepresented in that data. And so, I don't want anybody to be shot."

Yates's clarification had no effect on Tulsa PD Sergeant Marcus Harper, from the Black Officers Coalition.

"He's a grown man. He said what he said and he meant what he said," Harper told KTUL. "It's like he's trying to appease a certain audience and that audience is the law enforcement community."

Pressed to apologize for his comments, Yates refused. "I'm not going to apologize, because what I said was accurate based on the data," he said. "I know we live in an era where everyone apologizes, but quite frankly, my apology isn't going to make anything go away."