There's a difference between having empathy and accepting wrongful blame. It's not noble because it doesn't solve anything, it probably disparages racial equality, and is basically a two-bit "white guilt" card designed to cash in on SJW brownie points.
Another side of this 'card' is that black people have still been oppressed even since segregation ended. The 13th amendment says that people can't be held against their will unless they are charged with a crime. Since the inception of the war on drugs, minorities have been targeted and charged for the smallest stuff and sent to jail for a good part of their teenage lives. Police forces were instructed to profile minorities more because it allows you to fill private prisons. Although it may not be the police chief's decision, he probably knows that he may have held one role in this or another. Saying it's him kissing ass to SJWs is entirely your opinion, since you have no clue what his actual motivation behind this apology is. He could be entirely sincere and your hate boner for SJWs could be getting in the way.
Either way you put it, its still some level of empathy. I read the article and I personally think it's genuine. If you, as a non-minority, minority, or whatever race you are, think that it's not sincere, then think that. The police have played a key role in the incarceration of minorities since the 80s, whether you want to deny it or not. Having the police chief apologize for the atrocities committed against minority families counts as a step in the direction to reform and equality. If you want to come through with the private recordings that show he was held at gunpoint and forced to apologize, go ahead. Until then i'll consider it entirely genuine.
