Video from a police car’s dash camera shows an officer attempting to calm a nervous driver during a DUI stop by telling her “We only kill black people.”
The video was obtained by WSB Channel 2 in Atlanta. The woman can be heard telling the officer she’s afraid to move her hands because of recent police-involved shootings.
“Remember, we only kill black people. We only kill black people, right?” the officer from Cobb County tells the woman
The traffic stop occurred in July. Lt. Greg Abbot was the officer in the video.
The department has confirmed the comments and Abbott has been placed on administrative duties while the incident is investigated.
Lance LoRusso, the lawyer for Abbott, says the officer was trying to “de-escalate a situation involving an uncooperative passenger.”
“In context, his comments were clearly aimed at attempting to gain compliance by using the passenger’s own statements and reasoning to avoid making an arrest,” LoRusso says.
We are concerned about Lt. Abbot and what some will try to do and say to him based on this comment.
The truth is that Lt. Abbot has an excellent reputation without any complaints of racism and anyone that listens to the entire conversation in context will know exactly what he is doing but this is 2017 and a small fraction of the public will use whatever they can to attack law enforcement.
Abbot is dealing with a non-compliant driver and he turns her fear away by telling her that the only people she says on TV shot by police are black, She agrees and the conversation continues.
In short, Abbot is using the information he is being presented to try to calm the citizen down. At the same time, he’s pointing out the rigged media and their focus on blacks when he and every other police officers knows that twice as many whites are shot by the police than minorities.
He doesn’t say that because that would not calm her down.
We encourage Abbot to surround himself with friends and family and get ready for the cop haters to come out of the closets. This will pass and we certainly hope that there is leadership in his agency that can see this for what it is and not what those that hate will try to say and do.