Officer tells black driver: ‘I don’t care about your people’
ATLANTA » Police near Atlanta are investigating a recorded encounter in which an officer tells a black motorist that he doesn’t care about “your people.”
Dashcam video shows a Nov. 16 traffic stop northwest of Atlanta, in Cobb County.
The Cobb County officer can be heard telling the motorist “I don’t care about your people” after issuing traffic citations. The officer also tells the man, “Leave. Go away. Go to Fulton County.” Atlanta is in Fulton County.
A lawyer for the driver, 33-year-old teacher Brian Baker, says the comments were racial references because her client is black. She says that if a lawyer or teacher made the comments, that person would be fired — and the officer should be, too.
Cobb County police haven’t identified the officer. Sgt. Dana Pierce says he can’t comment because of the investigation.
15 responses to “Officer tells black driver: ‘I don’t care about your people’”
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Why are people offended so easily these days. We have a victim and entitlement mentality. Chill…
If the person making the comments were an ordinary citizen without police powers I’d agree with you but I sure wouldn’t want someone with the powers a police officer has to be espousing these kinds of views. This isn’t about a victim and entitlement mentality, this is about preventing an abuse of power. To me a police officer who has these views is even more dangerous than a thug without any real power.
How do we know the driver didn’t bring up the race card first and the cop was responding? The statement sounds like he was responding to the driver bringing up the race card. If he had said I don’t care “for” your people,…whole different context. Whatever it is, I hope the facts come out. It just amazes me how the media only quotes what the officer says and not the driver. Or the whole conversation,so we can have some context.
We don’t. That’s why we need to wait until the investigation is complete before passing judgment. That said, I’d be much more concerned with the possibility of a police officer having this kind of attitude than of an ordinary citizen exaggerating an incident like this. It definitely warrants an investigation as you can’t take these kinds of things lightly since police have powers ordinary citizens don’t have. We’re all free to feel how we like but the difference here is that it’s a police officer. They are held to a much higher standard because of the power they have.
Thanks to all the Body, Dash, other cams, we are finding all the “Rogue Officers” out there. As Chicago proved, 99% of the officers with verifiable complaints of misconduct against them, absolutely nothing was done. The reason why Chicago’s top cop was fired for his utter incompetence.
This is good news as the majority of high quality officers will no longer have to face the public’s scorn when the rogues fail in their job. It will take time to weed out these loser officers but it will happen. Faced with growing lawsuits, videos, cities/police departments see the writing on the wall. Clean up your act, dump the trash, keep all the good officers.
Git’r done.
Actually it will turn out the top cop was politically pressured to keep the whole thing under wraps so that Rahm Emmanual could avoid the controversy while he was busy trying to get re elected.
So what did the driver say to cause these statements by the officer? Don’t tell me he just say there and said nothing. Probably something like you cops always discriminate against us and Black Lives Matter.
Which of course could not be farther from the truth. The truth is black lives matter very little in black communities where young men are killing each other off at rates that not even the Ku Klux Klan could ever match at the height of their ferocity 90 years ago. Between that and the hugely disproportionate number of unborn babies aborted, one might even think of this as self inflicted ethnic cleansing.
I am wondering what the driver said to elicit the response. I am sure he didn’t come up to the car and just blurt out those words. I believe in context of the conversation vice a snippet of the conversation. For example if the driver commented to the police with in a angry voice “You you always pulling over us black people. I was just trying to get to Fulton County”. The the response of “I don’t care about your people.” could be a proper response. i.e. I don’t care if you are black or going to Fulton County. I am not trying to justify the action of the officer however this story has a lot of gaps.
Agree that it should be put into context before rushing to judgment. Not sure we’ll find out the whole truth though, as the police investigating themselves is inherently biased. It may not seem like a big deal to many but when it’s the police that are biased, it’s a whole lot worse than if it were an ordinary citizen without any power, though of course I’m not taking sides here just yet.
I have a lot of concern for anyone needlessly aggravating police officers, repeatedly insulting them attempting to provoke a response. But, at this point. I’m certainly not taking any side either.
Well given the nature of their profession I’m sure it happens all the time. My point is that the police are held to a higher standard because of their power and responsibilities. I’d be much more concerned with a police officer abusing his power than a citizen aggravating an officer trying to get a response.
As far as abusing power, I’d agree, but I’m not certain that harshly responding to insults, if in fact there were any, falls into that category. At the absolute minimum, some interaction counseling seems in order though. Regardless, until more is known, it’s all conjecture.
President Barack Obama says police in Cambridge, Mass., acted “stupidly”, July 2009.
That’s when the country became more racially divided…the rest is history.
This country has always been racially divided. Obama just brought the existing issues into mainstream consciousness.