Justice

This Police Officer Did Something We Haven't Seen Before and It's Going Viral

July 7th 2016

An emotional video from a police officer in response to the police shooting of Alton Sterling is going viral, but it's not in support of police officers.

A black police officer named Nakia Jones called the police shooting that killed Alton Sterling in front of a Baton Rouge, Louisiana convenience store "racist" in a recent Facebook video that has been viewed more than three million times.

Nakia Jones' post. Facebook/Nakia Jones - facebook.com

The Ohio police officer did something rare that many people, including a New York DJ, wanted to see: She called out other police officers. Peter Rosenberg from Hot 97 in New York said Wednesday that his biggest problem with cops is that they often don't admit when one of their own does something wrong.

"Ya'll don't ever want to point at someone else and say 'you can't do your job well,'" he said.

In her video, Jones said that her son came home from work and showed her the "disturbing" cellphone video of Sterling's death. She said she watched the video multiple times to truly understand what was happening before reacting.

"The shooting involved a police officer and I watched the video over, and over, and over, and over, and over again so that I wouldn't become judgmental," she said.

She said that being black and being a police officer are simultaneously important parts of her identity.

"I'm also the one that puts their lives in danger," said Jones. "I wear blue."

Jones said that she became increasingly angry and finally realized what other people see when they look at police officers.

"I'm looking at it and I became so furious. It bothers me when I hear people say, ‘Y’all police officers this, y’all police officers that. They put us in this negative category when I’m saying to myself, ‘I’m not that type of police officer.’ I know officers that are like me that would give their life for other people. So I’m looking at it, and it tore me up because I got to see what you all see. If I wasn’t a police officer and I wasn’t on the inside, I would be saying, ‘Look at this racist stuff. Look at this.’ And it hurt me.”

Facebook/Nakia Jones - facebook.com

Jones said that she became a police officer in 1996 so that she could help people. She took Sterling's shooting personally and said she was outraged that fellow officers would do something like that. Jones called out officers who have a "God complex" and are afraid of minorities. She told them to take of their uniforms and "put the KKK hoodie on" instead.

“How dare you stand next to me in the same uniform and murder somebody! How dare you! You ought to be ashamed of yourself! So, why don’t we just keep it real? If you’re that officer that knows good and well you’ve got a God complex, you’re afraid of people that don’t look like you, you have no business in that uniform! Take it off! If you’re afraid to go and talk to an African American female or a male, or a Mexican male or female because they’re not white like you, take the uniform off! You have no business being a police officer, because there’s many of us that would give our life for anybody! We took this oath and we meant it! If you are that officer that’s prejudice, take the uniform off and put the KKK hoodie on because I will not stand for that!”

Jones also shared her condolences for the Sterling family.

“My heart goes out to that young man’s family, because if it was my son I don’t know what I would do."

Jones concluded her message with a "black-on-black crime" argument that's popular in conservative circles after police shootings. Jones said that racism continues because black people keep "killing each other."

Facebook/Nakia Jones - facebook.com

"But to my brothers and sisters, my juvenile brothers and sisters, I am your keeper. Put them guns down, y’all. We’re killing each other. The reason why all this racist stuff keeps going on is because we’re divided. We’re killing each other, we’re not standing together. See, Martin Luther King and them stood together. You didn’t hear about a bunch of black people killing each other. We’ve got to stand together because a house divided against each other will not stand. We gotta be smart. Don’t mean going tearing up stuff. Be smart.”

Charles D. Ellison, contributing editor at The Root, wrote last year that the notion of black-on-black crime is a racist way to shift focus from police shootings.

"Despite the intense national obsession with it, however, we haven’t yet come to grips with the fact that it never really existed in the first place," Ellison wrote. "To refer to 'black-on-black crime' not only defies common sense but grabs at baseless white racist science that removes blame for systemic deeds."

People on Twitter slammed black-on-black crime as a defense for police shootings.

You can watch ATTN's video about Nakia Jones below.

Share your opinion

Do you think more police officers should speak out after police shootings?

No 4%Yes 96%