Speaking with podcast host Pat Campbell on Monday, a top Tulsa Police Department official gave his thoughts on the Black Lives Matter protests for racial justice. Major Travis Yates began by questioning what George Floyd was doing before the 10 minutes captured on video by witnesses. He then attacked statistics showing Black Americans are at considerably higher risk of being killed or hurt by police officers.
Podcast host Pat Campbell then led Major Yates down the crazypants path, saying he thought the police were being set up by the media as some kind of conspiracy to cut the budgets of police departments. Yates continued forward with a refrain heard from many police departments the past couple of days, saying that “over 350 million contacts” show that this “one event” is statistically negligible. As we know from the long list of names and stories, George Floyd’s death at the hands of law enforcement is not simply “one event.” But Yates had a lot more to say.
Yates then put on his tinfoil hat and noted that the last time we had large-scale protests like this was in 2016, based around the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The connective tissue, he said, is that it was also an election year. Yates began talking about organizations receiving money after the protests. He went through how the media is pushing fake news, saying things like Tamir Rice “was robbing people with a fake gun and when the cops showed up he pointed it at them.” If you need a refresher, Tamir Rice was the 12-year-old killed by a racist and cowardly officer, who should never have had a job with a gun, and there is ZERO evidence (and the police have never argued) that Rice was robbing people. Cleveland paid out at least $6 million to Rice’s family.
So, after Yates lied and lied and lied again to support his made-up theory that this is all fake news, he goes for the jugular: It turns out that all of this Black Lives Matter protesting and liberal watchdoggery of law enforcement is making law enforcement soft and less effective at their jobs. In fact, according to Yates, not only are the police not racist, they’re the opposite of racist! Citing research covered in this opinion piece by conservative Heather Mac Donald in the Wall Street Journal on June 2, Yates said, “All of the research says we're shooting African-Americans about 24% less than we probably ought to be, based on the crimes being committed."
Yates goes on to explain his tiny-minded theory, which is that people began protesting for justice, but once they arrested Chauvin, people began protesting more and changing the goal posts. "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," he declared.
Public Radio Tulsa reports that this interview has gotten Yates into a heap of hot water, though Tulsa Police Department Capt. Richard Meulenberg said he would reserve judgement until he heard the interview. "Everybody's got a right to their opinion. Obviously, he being a major with the Tulsa Police Department, it carries some weight that he has his opinion, and we'll have to just kind of go through this. I mean, I can't speak upon the thing that he talked about here because I don't have the data. I can't refute or substantiate what it is that he said here." Meulenberg did say that Yates had the right to speak for himself, and as long as he wasn’t speaking for the department, there wasn’t much he could do about it.
Tulsa Public Radio points out that Yates has written and made similar statements and taken similarly idiotic and racist positions over the past few years. There have been calls for his resignation since 2016. This makes Meulenberg’s statement sound like something he’s had to rehearse a few times already.
After the Public Radio report stirred up controversy Yates, in true Trumpian fashion, said he was misquoted, the claims were libelous, and the news was fake. He told ABC 8 Tulsa that he was talking about hypothetical data. His use of “ought to be,” doesn’t seem to have penetrated for him here.
In a video from 2018 when Yates was promoting some business he was running called “Courageous Leadership,” he explained that police were right and had always been right. That wearing body cameras had proven they were right. There is one mantra that racist right-wingers do stick to, for all of their hypocrisies: Never learn anything new.
