Former police officer says black people's voices need to be heard

A Connecticut criminal justice professor at Quinnipiac University is trying to put the Black Lives Matter movement in perspective.

News 12 Staff

Jun 16, 2020, 11:19 PM

Updated 1,419 days ago

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A Connecticut criminal justice professor at Quinnipiac University is trying to put the Black Lives Matter movement in perspective.
Kalfani Ture, was a police officer in Georgia for five years. He told USA Today in a recent interview he would not have shot and killed Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta.
The 27-year-old was running away after resisting arrest Friday when he was shot and killed by a white police officer.
Ture says the Atlanta Police Department is highly regarded for its training, but he says in his time as an officer in other towns, he "experienced incidents of racism as a law enforcement officer in Georgia."
Ture says the killing of Brooks relates to a term commonly known in police circles as "lawful but awful" -- killings that may be technically legal but could have been avoided.
He says black people's voices need to be heard.
"If people feel that their grievances are legitimate, then they will reciprocate and see you as being legitimate," said Ture.
Ture says other options were available to police before Brooks was shot, but police did not use them.
Ture told the New York Times in a recent article, in his 200 hours of training to become a police officer, most of it was dedicated to the use of force.


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