Georgia Cop To Nervous White Woman: 'We Only Kill Black People'
“Remember, we only kill black people. We only kill black people, right?”
A Georgia police lieutenant is under investigation after video taken last year showed him telling a White woman during a traffic stop that cops only kill Black people, NBC News reports.
The veteran officer — identified as Cobb County police Lt. Gregg Abbott — pulled the vehicle over for a DUI stop. When the woman appeared to be nervous, saying she had “seen way too many videos of cops” to put her hands down, the officer told her she wouldn’t be shot because she wasn’t Black.
“Remember, we only kill black people. We only kill black people, right?”
The July 2016 video has prompted an inquiry into the incident. Abbott has been moved to administrative duty pending an investigation.
An attorney for the veteran cop said the offensive and racist comments need to be examined fully, within context, before a decision is made.
“His comments must be observed in their totality to understand their context,” Lance LoRusso said. “He was attempting 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.”
A lawyer for the woman in the traffic stop also said Abbot was being “sarcastic.”
Cobb County Police Chief Mike Register seemed to condemn the statement, calling it “unacceptable” and “not indicative of the type of culture we are trying to facilitate.” An investigation continues.