In the wake of last week’s arrest of pro golfer Scottie Scheffler, sports commentator Stephen A. Smith is accusing the police of being steeped in racism for not releasing any bodycam footage of the arrest, and added, “If it were Tiger Woods, you’d have it.”
The world’s no. 1 ranked golfer was arrested on Friday morning outside Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, and charged with injuring a police officer with his car when he reportedly refused to obey police directions as he tried to drive into the entrance to the club.
Video of the arrest taken by a bystander shows the golfer being loaded into a police cruiser and driven off only a few hours before his tee time.
Scheffler was hit with charges including second-degree assault of a police officer (felony), criminal mischief in the third degree (misdemeanor), reckless driving, and disregarding signals from officers directing traffic (misdemeanor).
Despite the high security, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg says that Louisville police officers did not have their body cameras recording when Scheffler was arrested, and there is no official video record of the arrest.
This news set off Smith, who claims there is no video because police were arresting a white man, but they were arresting a black man; the body cam video would already be everywhere.
Louisville Metropolitan Department of Corrections via AP
“A mistake like that can’t happen,” Smith grumbled about the lack of police body cam video of Scheffler’s arrest. “That’s not a mistake in our eyes, that’s intentional. Nobody believes that you conveniently forgot to turn on your body-cam when you’re arresting the No. 1 golfer in the world! Nobody believes that!’
But even as he tried to claim he was not alleging racism, he went on to say, “You give Black America cause to pause when the No. 1 golfer in the world, who happens to be white, gets arrested.”
He then interjected Tiger Woods into the situation, saying that there would be video if they were arresting Woods.
“If you’re going to consistently have video incriminating Black people, consistently have video incriminating white people…I’m not trying to imply this was some racial incident or anything like that. I’m saying, to cynics who are quick to lean on race, you give them fodder when you let stuff like that happen. Where’s the damn video?” Smith railed. “That has to stop. Where’s the damn video…Find it! Get it! Because if it were Tiger Woods, you’d have it. If it was Tiger Woods, you know good and damn well you’d have it.”
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