Cop’s Facebook Post About Pulling Over ‘Terrified’ Black Youth Goes Viral (VIDEO)

A police officer’s heartfelt message about race relations in America has gone viral.

Tim McMillan, a police officer in Garden City, Georgia, was on patrol when he saw a driver texting at the wheel. McMillan pulled the vehicle over. When he approached the driver, he found a young Black man, “absolutely terrified with his hands up.”

“He said, ‘What do you want me to do officer?’ His voice was quivering. He was genuinely scared.”

McMillan was saddened by the kid’s reaction. He explained to the young man:

“‘…I don’t want you to text and drive. I don’t want you to get in a wreck. I want your mom to always have her baby boy. I want you to grow up and be somebody. I don’t even want to write you a ticket. Just please pay attention, and put the phone down. I just don’t want you to get hurt.’”

Patterns of Violence

It’s not hard to figure out why the kid was afraid. Recent high-profile killings of unarmed African-Americans – including the deaths of Philando Castille, Michael Brown, and Sandra Bland, among others – have brought the problem into sharp relief. In 2015 alone:

•Police killed more than 100 Black Americans.
•Unarmed Blacks were 5 times more likely to die at the hands of police than their white counterparts.
•When an unarmed Black person was killed by an officer, less than 10% of all cases resulted in criminal charged against the killers.

In other words, McMillan’s experience – recognition that the relationship between cops and racial minorities – is very real.

Gaining Recognition

McMillan made the original post October 1. It has over 214,000 likes to date, and a repost on McMillan’s new page – designed specifically to deal with his newfound celebrity status – has almost 17,000 likes. Thousands have thanked McMillan for his service and lifted him up as an example for all. One admirer, for instance, wrote:

“We have a LONG way to go, but you just inched us forward. Thank you.”

Unfortunately, many didn’t like what he had to say. McMillan encountered an abundance of “inherently pessimistic and overtly negative commentators.” Personal attacks multiplied to the point where he felt obligated to remove pictures of his family from social media. USA Today reports that “he sometimes wishes he’d never written the post.”

“Start Taking Responsibility”

McMillan’s post ends with a statement that he doesn’t care:

“who’s [sic] fault it is that young man was so scared to have a police officer at his window.”

“Blame the media, blame bad cops, blame protestors, [sic] or Colin Kaepernick if you want. It doesn’t matter to me who’s to blame. I just wish somebody would fix it.”

McMillan later clarified his point in a follow-up post, suggesting that his statement was meant to encourage people to “start taking responsibility.” But no matter what language we use, figuring out who deserves blame (or responsibility) for racial tension in America matters a great deal. Unless we understand where these attitudes come from – and who benefits from them – we have no way of solving the problem.

Political pundit Van Jones believes there are more opportunities for McMillan and others like him:

Featured image by lifeofpix.com via Pexels available under a CC Public Domain license.