A Las Vegas police union has asked a judge to quit her position on the bench after she made a slick remark to a Black man about his choice to engage law enforcement.
An organization representing police has taken exception with the court official, saying her comments were “disparaging” to the men and women in blue and inferred those in uniform have an implicit bias against certain people because of their race.
On Wednesday, July 13, the Las Vegas Police Protective Association is calling for Erika Ballou, a district judge, to resign after a video of her remarks she made on Monday, July 11 about the complicated (and often adversarial) relationship between African-Americans and the police went viral, reports the Daily Mail.
The LVPPA, which represents Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers, posted the footage on its Facebook page late on Wednesday, blasting the judge’s controversial statement days earlier in the caption.
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Ballou, a Black woman, said to the defendant, who had been arrested on charges of committing battery against an officer in the state while on probation, he should have kept his distance from the cop.
“You’re a Black man in America, you know you don’t want to be nowhere where cops are,” She is heard in the video saying.
“You listen to me, you know you don’t want to be nowhere where cops are. Because I know I don’t, and I’m a middle-aged, middle-class Black woman. I don’t want to be around where the cops are because I don’t know if I’m going to walk away alive or not,” Ballou continued.
The remarks were made during a hearing where the Clark County District Attorney’s Office was seeking a revocation of the man’s probation.
A spokesperson from the LVPPA released a statement saying, “On behalf of the men and women of law enforcement, the Las Vegas Police Protective Association takes exception to Judge Erika Ballou’s disparaging comments about police officers.”
‘We call upon Judge Ballou to resign from the bench. We also ask the Judicial Ethics Commission to sanction her for violating the Nevada Code of Judicial Conduct,” the statement continued. ‘Among other obligations, the rules require the judiciary to, ‘[A]spire at all times to conduct that ensures the greatest possible public confidence in their independence, impartiality, integrity, and competence.’
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