There really is no justice in this world, and as such, a police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black motorist is somehow back patrolling the streets, this time as a sheriff’s deputy, even after the same jurors who acquitted her recommended that she “never be a patrol officer again.”
Of course I am referring to Betty Shelby, the now-former Tulsa, Okla., police officer who killed Terence Crutcher.
According to The Frontier, Shelby is now serving as a full-time deputy for the Rogers County Sheriff’s Office in Claremore, Okla., and is happily patrolling again.
Shelby, one may remember, resigned from the Tulsa Police Department after her trial ended in her acquittal. While at the TPD, she landed a cushy desk job after the killing, as she was not allowed to patrol. She even managed to get the fatal shooting scrubbed from her employment record, as if she had never killed an unarmed man.
She eventually left the TPD and last fall joined the Sheriff’s Office as an unpaid reserve deputy. A few months ago she came board full time, and Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton confirmed that she has had no issues on the job.
“She’s doing her job and doing it well,” Walton said. “When she came on as a reserve deputy, we talked about when she was ready, maybe returning to patrol. She had some commitments she wanted to fulfill first, but she hit that point a few months ago where she was ready.”
So glad that Shelby could move on with her life and get right back into the swing of things after killing an unarmed man.
Walton said that he has believed in and supported Shelby through all of this, apparently, adding that the people hurt most by the treatment Shelby received by District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler and Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan were “the good people in North Tulsa who want aggressive proactive policing done, who want to keep the thugs out.”
And to hear Walton tell the story, Shelby has been fully embraced by the community in Rogers County, where he says a few residents have even voiced their agreement with his decision to have her on the force.
“Not to make this a black or white or racial deal, but one gentleman, a black gentleman, approached Betty at QuikTrip and struck up a conversation with her and said, ‘I know who you are and I appreciate what you do,’” Walton said. “No reason at all for us not to support her.”
Look, guys, not to bring race into the whole thing, but ol’ Betty has a black supporter. Does he function the same as a black friend?