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By Rickey Hampton, Editor and Founder of TheAfricanAmericanAthlete.com
For all of you who wondered how in the world that America could elect the current racist president, you need to know about people like Todd Shaw, who worked for 20 years as a police fficer in Louisville, Ky., and most recently as the Assistant Police Chief in nearby Prospect, Ky.
Shaw, like millions who voted for Donald Trump, walked around with the moral high ground of an officer of the law, who is patriotic to his country, and believes in doing the right thing.
Oh, but when he thought no one was watching, he let his true feelings show about the way he feels about some of the people who live in America.
In a Facebook conversation with rookie recruit, Shaw instructed the recruit that if he happened on to a black teens who was smoking weed to: “Fuck the right thing. If black shoot them.”
Shaw had other advice for the recruit on how to encounter the black teen’s parents. “If the mom is hot then fuck her. If the dad is hot then handcuff him and make him suck my dick. Unless the daddy is black. Then shoot him.”
Clearly, this man is a sick, disgusting, perverted person. Yet, he was able to walk around the city of Louisville for 20 years with a gun and badge. And, he was able to ascend to a higher position as the Assistant Police Chief in Prospect. What is so concerning here is those kind of sick thoughts just didn’t pop into Shaw’s mind.
That kind of evil has been festering for quite a while. It is hard for me to think he didn’t share those sentiments with other members of the Louisville police department. Why didn’t anyone expose his racism years ago? Those who didn’t say anything are complicit in allowing this evil man to infiltrate their ranks, and it is almost certain that those who feel the way Shaw did still exist on the force today.
To be clear, this isn’t to say that all white people in the Louisville area police ranks think along the lines of Shaw. And proof of that are the actions of Jefferson Country District Attorney Mike O’Connell, who happens to be white.
Shaw was busted when O’Connell ran across the statements while investigating another case involving Shaw. As you might imagine, Shaw fought like hell to keep the Facebook posts from going public, but local media outlets were able to obtain them through the Freedom of Information act.
O’Connell was as disgusted by Shaw’s comments. “This kind of person walking the streets with a gun or a badge should never be tolerated. And they should be weeded out for good.” And credit him for going back to review the cases that Shaw made during his career. In fact, every case in which Shaw was the only witness has been dismissed.
