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Protesters across the US have demanded to ‘defund the police’ after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota \u00a9 REUTERS\/Lawrence Bryant<\/p><\/div>\n
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Major Travis Yates of Tulsa, Oklahoma is refusing to apologize and rejects accusations of racism, saying he was quoting research and not his personal opinion in a radio show appearance. The Tulsa PD has disavowed his remarks.<\/p>\n
Yates made waves this week when his opinion piece about the wave of George Floyd protests went viral.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s over America. You finally did it. You aren\u2019t going to have to abolish the police, we won\u2019t be around for it,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he wrote in his piece,\u00a0published by RT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tulsa Public Radio then took an interest in the outspoken officer, noting that Yates made an appearance on a\u00a0KFAQ radio show<\/a>\u00a0on June 8. In their writeup, TPR\u00a0claimed<\/a>\u00a0that the police major\u00a0\u201csuggested that, according to his interpretation of crime data, police should actually be shooting black Americans more frequently.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Even though Yates spoke in his personal capacity, the TPR story led to the Tulsa police department disavowing him. His statements\u00a0\u201care not part of any curriculum or training provided by the Department. Yates\u2019 comments do not align with the mission, values, or policies of the Tulsa Police Department,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0the Tulsa PD said in a statement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n What TPR described as Yates\u2019s statement, however, was actually the police major quoting research by others \u2013 and saying that very clearly in the interview. The radio station has since updated the quote, but left the inflammatory headline up.<\/p>\n \u201cI clearly prefaced this statement with attribution, and mentioned my sources by name. What I actually said\u2014in mentioning research from Roland Fryer, Heather MacDonald, and the National Academy of Sciences\u2014was that \u2018all of their research says.\u2019 Obviously, this is a serious, factual error of attribution,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Yates said in a\u00a0statement posted<\/a> by KTUL-TV on Wednesday.<\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/LisaMarieBoothe\/status\/1271155653558571008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1271155653558571008&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rt.com%2Fusa%2F491573-police-racism-media-tulsa%2F<\/p>\n