First Black Mayor Of Dallas Has HARSH Words For Black Woman Who Falsely Accused Police Of Racism

I very nearly missed this story, but it’s heartening to hear someone call out this bullcrap.

Remember Dorothy Bland? She’s the black woman who accused police officers in Dallas of racism when they stopped her for walking down the middle of the road (and being concerned for her safety)?

According to this, former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk was furious when he heard Bland’s story. This is what he told the Dallas Morning News about the incident (his remarks are too good to try to paraphrase, so here’s quoting from the article) –

According to the Morning News, Kirk said he was so angry about Bland’s words that “he couldn’t wait” to call the paper to say that “the officers were just doing their jobs, and injecting race into the matter hurts the cause.”

 

“There’s nothing wrong here,” Kirk told the paper regarding the officers’ actions. “It was a proper, polite encounter. I read her piece, I read the police chief’s response, I watched the video. I was so angry.”

 

As for Bland’s claim that she was stopped because of her skin color, Kirk — who served as Dallas mayor from 1995 to 2002 — wasn’t buying it.

 

“That had nothing to do with it,” he told the Morning News. “They stopped her for a very legitimate reason.”

 

“Of all the things to worry about, this just isn’t it,” Kirk added, referring to Bland’s complaint that police asked for date of birth. “To me, it’s a nothing burger.”

 

“As a person of color, this upsets me,” Kirk continued. “Particularly against what happened in South Carolina. Particularly as this country is wrestling with very real concerns regarding the police treatment of African-American youth. She took advantage of a very innocent and thoughtful police response — walk on the right side of the street — she’s just looking for her Skip Gates moment. There’s a real danger here.”

 

And what is that danger? “To me, they behaved the way we’re asking police to treat people,” Kirk explained to the Morning News. “To demonize people for trying to do the right thing … it makes it easier for whites to say, ‘Oh, my gosh, everything’s about race now. This is all about politics and not about a very real and difficult issue.’ That’s the danger. And that makes me downright mad.”

It’s about time that somebody else finally said that most of this fake racism crap is just that. And, Mayor Kirk is right – it DOES detract of actual issues. More often than not, people crying about perceived racism are just looking for attention (Hello, University of Missouri!) and all this does is divide us further and further apart. And it’s flat-out stupid.

Good for Mayor Kirk for speaking out!