A Georgia cop is under investigation for telling a nervous white woman she won’t be shot because police only kill black people.
Cobb County police Lt. Gregg Abbott is on paid administrative leave while the investigation into his “inappropriate racial comments” is ongoing. Abbott was initially assigned to desk duty.
The incident took place sometime last year when Abbott pulled over a sedan that was driving erratically. After arresting the driver for DUI, Abbott told the female passenger she could use the cell phone in her lap to make a call.
But the nervous white woman told Abbott she was afraid to move her hands because she might get shot — an obvious reference to the large number of unprovoked police shootings of unarmed black people during traffic stops in recent years.
“I’ve just seen way too many videos of cops,” the woman said before Abbott cut her off.
“But you’re not black… Remember, we only kill black people. Yeah, we only kill black people. Right?” Abbott assured the frightened woman. His comments were captured on dashcam video obtained by WSB-TV.
Abbott continued: “All the videos you’ve seen, have you seen black people getting killed?” To which the woman responded she had seen an “18-year-old white boy” being killed by police.
The woman was arrested and transported to jail.
Cobb County Police Chief Mike Register told WSB-TV that Abbot was a “quality officer” until the video of the traffic stop was uncovered.
“We’re not making excuses,” he said. “We’re meeting this head-on and we’re going to deal with it.”
Suri Chadha Jimenez, the woman’s lawyer in the DUI case, said Abbott was likely being sarcastic because her client “gave him some lip.”
“No matter what the context it was said, it shouldn’t have been said,” Cobb County Police Chief Mike Register told WSB-TV.
“It makes you cringe when you hear it,” Jimenez told WSB-TV. “It’s unacceptable.”
