The last 48 hours have seen a flood of news about Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, both of whom were shot and killed by police officers, and both of whose deaths were recorded on video by nearby citizens. Now a black female police officer named Nakia Jones has taken to Facebook Live to share a video addressing these murders, as a cop herself.
In the clip, Jones starts out by talking about her dedication to the force, and the importance of going by certain protocols when out in the field. But with the recent shootings, she admits it’s getting hard to feel so passionately about her position within the force. “I’m here because I wanted to make a difference — but how dare you stand next to me in the same uniform and murder somebody. How dare you. If you’re that officer that knows good and well you got a god complex, you’re afraid of people that don’t look like you, you have no business in that uniform,” she says. “Take it off.”
Jones is visibly furious throughout the seven-minute video, and talks about watching videos of Eric Garner and now Alton Sterling with her family, discussing what to do if ever confronted with law enforcement, and reckoning with the reality that discrimination against people of color is alive and well.
She ends the video by saying, “Because not only am I a mother of two African-American sons, and I have African-American nephews, and I have brothers, I am also a person that wears the uniform with the blue. I’m also the one that puts their lives in danger. I wear blue.”