By Eagle Newswire
Former Tulsa County sheriff Stanley Glanz took the stand Tuesday, March 7, 2017, to defend his use of racial slurs to describe African American people.
The testimony came during a civil rights case involving death of an inmate at the Tulsa County Jail.
The family of Elliott Williams, who dies at 47 in the jail six years ago, said he did not receive proper care. Attorney Daniel Smolen says that the use of racial slurs were commonly used at that time to refer to African Americans.
Smolen says that mindset lead to a systematic breakdown in the treatment of inmates.
“I don’t think this case is solely about race, but I believe there’s elements of race that you can’t separate out,” he said.
Smolen tiptoed around the race issue Monday when he asked Glanz about allegations concerning his routine use of racial slurs to refer to African American detention officers and inmates.
Glanz admitted he used the slur, and said he didn’t have a problem using it, because the FBI used the phrase to describe African Americans in the 1960s and 1970s.
Smolen says Glanz has repeatedly testified that he though the inmates were of a lesser class than him.
He says Glanz’s use of racial slurs have been documented as late as 2015.
