--- title: Greg Abbott: Cop Fired for 'Only Shoot Black People' Comment description: A police officer in Georgia will be fired after he was recorded on video telling a woman during a traffic stop, “We only shoot black people” canonical: https://time.com/4924435/greg-abbott-cobb-county-only-shoot-black-people/ author: Abigail Abrams article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-31T23:37:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:32:19.493Z article:section: Politics og:title: Georgia Police Officer Fired for Saying 'We Only Shoot Black People' og:description: The police chief said the officer's comments were "inappropriate" og:url: https://time.com/4924435/greg-abbott-cobb-county-only-shoot-black-people/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c0696932432a1af/6988dc1ccf40a8fa4fc49369/police-siren-stock-officer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5760 og:image:height: 3240 og:image:alt: Child Thrown From Vehicle og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Georgia Police Officer Fired for Saying 'We Only Shoot Black People' twitter:description: The police chief said the officer's comments were "inappropriate" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c0696932432a1af/6988dc1ccf40a8fa4fc49369/police-siren-stock-officer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Georgia Police Officer Fired for Saying 'We Only Shoot Black People' > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=a36ed5b8-3ef7-4649-91cb-4c98bdc7ca8f&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Georgia Police Officer Fired for Saying 'We Only Shoot Black People' [Watch (HLS stream): Georgia Police Officer Fired for Saying 'We Only Shoot Black People'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/DS85aXFt.m3u8) (1:22)  _Published 2017-09-01. A police officer in Georgia will be fired after he was recorded on video telling a woman during a traffic stop, “We only shoot black people.”_ by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Aug 31, 2017 11:37 PM UTC A police officer in Georgia will be fired after he was recorded on video telling a woman during a traffic stop, “We only shoot black people.” by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Aug 31, 2017 11:37 PM UTC A police officer in Georgia will be fired after he was recorded on video telling a woman during a traffic stop, “We only shoot black people.” The video, which was obtained by [WSB Atlanta](http://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/cobb-county/officer-to-woman-during-traffic-stop-we-only-kill-black-people-right/600704431), shows Lt. Greg Abbott of the Cobb County Police Department telling a white woman she can use her phone during the traffic stop. When the woman responds that she was afraid to because she has seen “way too many [videos of cops](http://time.com/4192984/indio-police-shooting-lawsuit/),” Abbott stops her to say she will be fine because she’s not black. “But you’re not black,” Abbott says on the video. “Remember, we only shoot black people. Yeah. We only kill black people, right?” Abbott was initially placed on [administrative leave](http://time.com/4922963/police-officer-on-dash-cam-video-we-only-shoot-black-people/), but Police Chief Mike Register said during a press conference on Thursday that the department planned to fire the lieutenant, according to the [Atlanta _Journal-Constitution_](http://www.ajc.com/news/local/cobb-officer-who-said-only-shoot-black-people-says-retire/8B3H64z17G9WrybtMj92tI/). “I have known Lt. (Greg) Abbott for years and perceived him as honorable, but he’s made a mistake. I don’t know what is in his heart, but I know what came out of his mouth,” Register said on Thursday. “We recommend that he be terminated and we are moving forward on that.” However, as the press conference was happening, Abbott sent an email announcing his retirement, the _Journal-Constitution_ reported. The Cobb County police office told the local paper it was not immediately clear how this development would affect Abbott’s firing. ## Transcript [00:00] No. I can't call [ UNKNOWN ]. Why can't [00:07] you? Because I will not put my. Use your phone, it's in [00:08] your lap right there. Okay, I just don't want to put my [00:10] hands down. I am really sorry, I am just [ INAUDIBLE ], [00:10] No, no, I have just seen way too many videos of [00:15] cops. But you are not [00:20] black. Remember We only kill black people. Yeah, we [00:22] only kill black people right? All the videos you have [00:24] seen, have you seen white people get killed? Yes. You [00:32] have. [ INAUDIBLE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [00:37] I've known Lt. Abbott for a number of years and I've [00:39] always perceived him to be an honorable man. But he [00:41] made a mistake. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] I don't [00:46] know what's in his heart, but I certainly know what [00:50] came out of his mouth. And it's inexcusable, and we [00:54] have to take appropriate action. The recommendation [00:57] is to terminate his employment from the Cobb County [00:59] Police Department. And certainly there is a process [01:02] that we would have to go through in order to do that [01:05] but we are certainly moving forward with that process. [01:09] I've already said that in no context can I tolerate [01:13] this type of language and so I don't really think that we [01:16] can sit here and justify any type of language when the [01:20] verbage is what we heard on that video. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4924435/greg-abbott-cobb-county-only-shoot-black-people/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4924435/greg-abbott-cobb-county-only-shoot-black-people/"},"headline":"Georgia Police Officer Fired for Saying 'We Only Shoot Black People'","datePublished":"2017-08-31T23:37:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T09:32:19.493Z","description":"The police chief said the officer's comments were \"inappropriate\"","url":"https://time.com/4924435/greg-abbott-cobb-county-only-shoot-black-people/","keywords":["georgia","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c0696932432a1af/6988dc1ccf40a8fa4fc49369/police-siren-stock-officer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abigail Abrams","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c0696932432a1af/6988dc1ccf40a8fa4fc49369/police-siren-stock-officer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Child Thrown From Vehicle","caption":"Child Thrown From Vehicle","creditText":"kali9—iStockphoto/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/georgia/","name":"georgia"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4924435/greg-abbott-cobb-county-only-shoot-black-people/","name":"Georgia Police Officer Fired for Saying 'We Only Shoot Black People'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Georgia Police Officer Fired for Saying 'We Only Shoot Black People'","description":"A police officer in Georgia will be fired after he was recorded on video telling a woman during a traffic stop, “We only shoot black people.”","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/DS85aXFt/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-09-01T01:59:22.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/DS85aXFt.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4924435/greg-abbott-cobb-county-only-shoot-black-people/","duration":"PT1M22S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4924435/greg-abbott-cobb-county-only-shoot-black-people/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```