Outrage continues to pour out across the country in the wake of the fatal police shooting of 37-year-old Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La. early Tuesday morning. Many of the voices speaking out have been from civilians, but one cop, Nakia Jones, is angry and hurt as well. Jones posted a video on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon, decrying the racism of white cops in black communities.
The powerful and emotional video has since gone viral, racking up over two million views and more than 132,000 shares in less than 24 hours.
Jones said that after watching the footage of police shooting Sterling gave her insight into how civilians see police:
It bothers me when I hear people say, "Y'all police officers this, y’all police officers that." They put us in this negative category when I'm saying to myself, "I'm not that type of police officer." I know officers that are like me that would give their life for other people. So I'm looking at it, and it tore me up because I got to see what you all see. If I wasn't a police officer and I wasn't on the inside, I would be saying, 'Look at this racist stuff. Look at this.' And it hurt me.
Jones also had a pointed message for racist police officers who work in black communities.
"What hurts me the most," Jones said, "is the people that stood in front of a judge and stood in front of a mayor and said, "I swear my oath that I will swear and protect this community." She continued on to tell cops who are racist that they're in the wrong profession and need to leave the police force:
If you are white and you work in a black community and you are racist, you need to be ashamed of yourself. You stood up there and took an oath. If this is not where you want to work at, you need to take your behind somewhere else. I decided to work in an African American community because I'm African American and I wanted to make a difference...
Jones, who lives in Cleveland, also said that she wanted to quit her job after seeing the video of Alton Sterling being shot and killed by police, but said "I need y'all to support the ones of us that are right."
Nakia Jones did not immediately reply to Complex's request for comment.
