The new show highlighting the brave men and women of law enforcement, which debuted on A&E, was just given the boot by the Mayor of Tulsa. The Cops knock-off ‘Live PD’ follows the police around while on patrol and promises to give the audience an unbiased look at what it’s like to be a cop. Unfortunately, all the show did was prove that patterns of discrimination and racial profiling are alive and well in Tulsa.
According to the Mayor’s office, they felt that the cameras were a distraction to the officers “attempting to keep our streets safe.” But that isn’t the whole truth. The reality is that the citizens of Tulsa responded fiercely on social media, proclaiming that due to the filming of the show, they were afraid to leave their homes. According to reports, the show’s filming was restricted to one singled-out neighborhood. The neighborhood in question, if you couldn’t guess, was a primarily black neighborhood.
One social media post called out the mayor directly: “GT Bynum, look at the comments here, please. Every week people post about how they can’t leave their homes for fear of being caught on this show. Please get A&E out of Tulsa.” The Mayor responded, “I spoke with Chief Jordan about this last week and he confirmed our agreement with them has been terminated. I am not a fan.” Unfortunately, his statements to the media didn’t address the racial aspect of the show. “I’m not worried about public relations. I’m worried about the safety of our officers and our citizens.”
One video that made its way to the airwaves demonstrated inexplicably how racist the department is. In the clip, it shows a Tulsa police officer pull up to a black man wearing a blue polo shirt. Without even getting out of his patrol car, he harasses the man about why he is looking in his own trunk. He then tells the man he believes the man to be in a gang because of the color of his shirt. The man promptly gives him a piece of his mind and fortunately doesn’t end up in handcuffs. The indiscriminate harassment of the members of a single neighborhood were too much for the city to bear. If the police were caught on video racially profiling enough times to catch the attention of the mayor, just how many times do they practice racial discrimination when they’re off-camera?
The Tulsa PD has had more than its share of controversial incidents. Most notably, the shooting of Terrance Crutcher by Officer Betty Shelby. Betty Shelby murdered Crutcher without provocation but is still on the Tulsa Police payroll. Tulsa has a total of around 775 cops, yet on average, around 140 are investigated internally by the department for misconduct. That’s nearly 20% of the entire department being subject to investigation for offenses like excessive force. This is an unacceptable number by any standard. Perhaps the mayor should be more concerned with cleaning up the police department rather than with the image the show projects for the city.
Sources: Tulsa Police, The Free Thought Project.
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Waaaa! And that police officer your talking about is Sticks! Would the citizens of Tulsa rather not have him on the gang unit! Cause I think he’s a great Cop! If you lose a great cop like him then your idiots! For a known gang member! As Sticks said, the week prior they had a great conversation. But the camera crew was there so he acted out! Every black person is looking for a person to sue the cops/city. I have friends who live in Tulsa and they know the bad parts of the city to stay out of!
I HAVE SEEN ALL AREAS THERE ARE MORE COPS THAN JUST THOSE!! NOONE CHOSE THE RACE
Of who all lives in a neighborhood! I see all kinds of races! I HEAR MORE RACIALS SLURRS AGAINST THE COPS THAN THE OTHER WAY AROUND!
Sound like you guys in OK need to re elect a new mayor,,
Profiling my ass, give me one quess < the Mayor is a pansy and afraid by showing a
Democrat or rather a Black being publicized and arrested the police are actually doing to good of Job, it could cost him a vote from
the liberals or the Blacks. It is his actions by
cutting ties that could lead me to think he is
filtering or hiding something, or possibly he
Is a believer in Sanctuary cities.
What a dumb ass you are Mr.mayor, it is
Really a shame, the police were great.
I know, I am a Captain Sheriff's Dept. (retired).
Seriously mr.mayor you really need to leave
your politics out of law enforcement..
Afraid to show real Police work, what element Officers have to deal with daily and WHO is committing the HUGE MAJORITY of crime. That’s the bottom line here. You can cancel the show all you want. The internet is alive and well, the truth can’t be hidden any longer.
The police gang unit wouldn’t target a specific neighborhood unless specific crimes are being committed in that neighborhood. If the black community is upset about police spending time in their community then the black community should take action. How about mentoring people when they are young and end the cycle of violence and black on black crimes which is the leading cause of death for black males under the age of 25 according to the CDC statistics. Of course, the media would lead you to believe that police shootings are the leading cause of death.
Frankly, maybe you could claim all this but watching this clip of the police abusing an older man for sitting in his car relaxing in his own neighbourhood. I am absolutely certain that if it had been me in my car, the cops would have had much more issues with me but I still would not be in cuffs being assaulted (unless they were begging to be fired).
This guy was far nicer than I would be & did absolutely nothing wrong (apart from deal with racist cops). I certainly wouldn’t have given such corrupt cops my ID or any thing but what the law requires.
The guy clearly enforces his rights to not be searched, illegally detained, forced to testify or provide evidence against oneself, be informed of cause/rights, etc. The cops response, physically dragging him out & flat out admitting it’s because he’s not being nice/helpful.
He has no obligation to be nice, helpful, provide id, etc. & they don’t have the right to use pain compliance to make him give up his human rights!
Adam
On live PD, its obvious white women get the most breaks, as some offer sex to get rid of tickets, violations; white males get the second most break, even a white male with heroin was not arrested because his white girlfriend cried her eyes out; upper-class whites get more break because of their status; blacks, male and female and Hispanics, get few if any break from these mostly white racist officers. Even some Hispanic officers treat other Hispanics worse than the white officers do. Such is the criminal justice system in this country and in the era of Trump, it has become worse, not better and Live PD just exposes the inequalities in criminal justice. Imagine a black male let go with a bag of heroin, LOL.
Live PD exposes the racist attitudes of most cops; thanks for such a great show.
Racism continues to be the elephant in the room in the USA. When I travel abroad, one of the most often asked is why is the US so hung up on killing each others and white cops killing black kids who do not have guns but persuade whites with guns to give up. Its shoot blacks first and ask whites questions.