Memphis Police Sergeant Under Fire For Suggesting Descendants Of Slave Owners Are Owed Reparations

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A racist cop in Memphis, Tennessee, is under fire for, well, being a racist cop in a city where a quarter of its citizens are Black.

Memphis Police Sergeant Brandon Lea. (Yep, not just a racist cop, but a high-ranking racist cop.)

According to Fox 13, Lea is currently the target of a citizen complaint filed after he posted to his Facebook page, “I think if the government pays reparations, then I want a refund for the slaves my ancestors lost.”

It’s unclear what prompted Lea’s pro-white supremacy post. In April of last year, the Tennessee House voted down an anti-reparations bill that would have banned state officials from even looking into the logistics and practicality of giving reparations to the descendants of slaves, as well as funding reparations.  Maybe that’s what got Lea’s Klan-derwear all in a bunch to the point where he, as an officer of the law, is out here suggesting that white people had a protected right to own Black people and, therefore, should be compensated for their loss of human property.

Of course, despite the citizen complaint, it’s still up in the air whether there will be any investigation into Lea’s social media activity. When asked for a comment on the matter, the MPD said in a statement, “The Memphis Police Department is aware of the allegation and is actively looking into the matter.”

One would think “actively looking into the matter” would be pretty simple. Lea factually posted what he posted and the post reveals his racism. Purging racist cops, especially in cities with large non-white populations, should really be a no-brainer, but the justice system doesn’t operate that way. Catching a cop or judge being racist is the easy part. It’s too easy. But the culture of policing doesn’t allow for an easy process of ousting these bigoted officials.

For Black people it’s simple: if you’re a cop who says or posts something racist, you’re a racist cop. If you’re a racist cop, you’re an anti-Black police brutality incident, racial profiling incident, or a racist, unlawful arrest waiting to happen.

But the system doesn’t see it that way. After all, if all racist cops were purged from departments across the country, the nation would likely suffer from a massive police shortage. It’s not just “a few bad apples.” The whole “back the blue” culture is rotten to the core.

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