Brandon Orlando Tatum (born April 22, 1987), also known as The Officer Tatum, is an American

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

political commentator, author,

radio personality A radio personality is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host (North American English), radio presenter (British English) or radio jockey. Radio personali ...

, former policeman, and former college football player.

Early life and education

Born in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

, Tatum was an

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

football player in high school. His father, Bobby Tatum, was a Deputy Chief in the Fort Worth Fire Department. His great uncle,

Jack Tatum John David Tatum (November 18, 1948 – July 27, 2010) was an American professional American football, football Safety (gridiron football position), safety who played 10 seasons from 1971 through 1980 with the Oakland Raiders and the Houston Oi ...

, was an Ohio State

, NFL

All-Pro All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list t ...

, and a Super Bowl champion with the Oakland Raiders Tatum was featured in the US-Army All-American Game, which showcases the top 78 high school football players in the nation. Tatum committed to playing on a full athletic scholarship from the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

in 2004. Tatum played at Arizona for five years and entered the

NFL Draft The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...

in 2010.

Career

Police officer

After going undrafted in the

, Tatum became a police officer in

Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

. He rose to prominence in early 2016 for a

viral video Viral videos are video, videos that become popular through viral phenomenon, a viral process of Internet sharing, primarily through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhon ...

which featured him at a campaign rally for presidential candidate

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

. Following the rally, he said in the video that he felt unsafe because of those who protested against the event. He went viral a second time in September 2017 for a video in which he expressed his opposition to players "

taking the knee Taking the knee (or taking a knee) is a symbolic gesture against racism whereby an individual kneels upon one knee in place of standing to attention for an anthem or other such occasion. It was originated by American football player Colin Kaep ...

" during the

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European ...

at NFL football games.

Political commentary

Tatum resigned from the Tucson Police Department in October 2017 to join Liftable Media — a conservative content producer that owns and operates ''

The Western Journal ''The Western Journal'', previously known as ''Western Journalism'', is an American conservative news and politics website based in Phoenix, Arizona. It was founded by political consultant Floyd Brown in 2008. History ''Western Journalism'' ...

'' and ''The Conservative Tribune''. He then served as director of urban engagement for the conservative action group

Turning Point USA Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for Conservatism in the United States, conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses. It was founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk and Bill Montgo ...

, before founding his own media company in late 2019. In November 2021, Bombardier Books published Tatum’s book, ''Beaten Black and Blue: Being a Black Cop in an America Under Siege'', distributed by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

. In May 2022, Tatum began hosting a national talk radio program, ''The Officer Tatum Show'', distributed by

Salem Radio Network Salem Radio Network is a United States–based radio network that specializes in syndicated Christian political talk, music, and conservative secular news/talk programming. It is a division of the Salem Media Group. Network information Salem ...

. Tatum runs a YouTube channel called "The Officer Tatum" with over 3 million subscribers. As of May 2023, he has accumulated over 571 million total views. Tatum has also appeared as a guest on

Candace Owens Candace Owens Farmer ( Owens; born April 29, 1989) is an American political commentator and author. Her political positions have mostly been described as conservative or far-right. Owens has gained recognition for her conservative activism—d ...

PragerU The Prager University Foundation, known as PragerU, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit advocacy group and media organization that creates content promoting conservative and capitalist viewpoints on various political, economic, and sociological ...

show ''The Candace Owens Show'' as well as her ''

The Daily Wire The Daily Wire is an American conservative media company founded in 2015 by political commentator Ben Shapiro and film director Jeremy Boreing. The company is a major publisher on Facebook, and produces podcasts such as ''The Ben Shapiro S ...

'' political podcast ''Candace'' as a panelist.

Blexit

Along with Owens, Tatum founded Blexit, an organization meant to persuade the black American population to leave the Democratic Party and re-register as

Republicans Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

. The name Blexit is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

, a combination of the words "black" and "exit".

Bibliography

*''Beaten Black and Blue'', published November 30, 2021 ()

References

External links

* The Officer Tatum * Tatum Report * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tatum, Brandon O. 1987 births Living people African-American Christians African-American police officers African-American radio personalities African-American founders American columnists American gun rights activists American media critics American police officers American political commentators American political writers American radio hosts Arizona Republicans Black conservatism in the United States Commentary YouTubers Law enforcement officials from Arizona News YouTubers University of Arizona alumni YouTube channels launched in 2016 YouTubers from Arizona YouTubers from Fort Worth, Texas Salem Media Group people