Cleveland cop insists the shootings of Tamir Rice & John Crawford were justified
Cenk Uygur from the Young Turks Network blasted Cleveland Patrolmen’s Association head Jeffrey Follmer on Tuesday for his insistence that the shootings of Tamir Rice and John Crawford by local officers were justified.
"The president of the Cleveland Patrolmen's Association on Monday refused to back down from criticizing a Cleveland Browns player as "pathetic" for wearing a shirt calling for justice for two unarmed black males who were killed by police officers in Ohio.
Cleveland Patrolmen's Association President Jeffrey Follmer on Sunday issued a statement criticizing Browns wide receiver Andrew Hawkins for wearing a shirt saying, "Justice For Tamir Rice and John Crawford," before the team's game. Tamir Rice, 12, was shot to death by Cleveland police last month while carrying a pellet gun. Crawford, 22, was killed by police officers in August while holding a toy rifle in a Walmart in Dayton, Ohio.
"It's pretty pathetic when athletes think they know the law," Follmer said on Sunday. "They should stick to what they know best on the field. The Cleveland Police protect and serve the Browns stadium and the Browns organization owes us an apology."
“Just, for Christ’s sake, be a human for a second,” Uygur said. “And say, ‘We’re so sorry that a 12-year-old kid died, man. Obviously we didn’t mean that.’ Is that too hard to say? Is that too hard to say — ‘We didn’t mean to kill your 12-year-old son. We’re so sorry about that’” Cenk Uygur said.
“You killed him in two seconds — [Rice] didn’t have time to listen to what you said,” Uygur said in response. “This Orwellian prick; we just saw the video, we’ve seen the video a million times. You pull up and you shoot him. You pull up and you shoot him. One-one thousand, two-one thousand and he’s dead.”
In an interview with MSNBC's Ari Melber, Follmer criticized Cleveland Browns wide receiver Andrew Hawkins for wearing a T-shirt calling for justice in the killing. The union previously described the football player as "pathetic" in a statement.
“You’re saying that the video clearly shows that the 12-year-old boy was an imminent lethal threat to the officers?” Melber asked.
“Oh, absolutely. I don’t know if you didn’t see it, but yeah absolutely," the officer replied.
Eventually, Follmer dismissed Melber's questions about excessive force and wrapped up the debate with a message to Americans.
"How about this: Listen to police officers' commands. Listen to what we tell you, and just stop," he said. "I think that eliminates a lot of problems."
"I think the nation needs to realize that when we tell you to do something, do it," he added.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/15/jeffrey-follmer-cleveland-browns_n_6330990.html
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/police-union-chief-tamir-rice-killing-justified-373082691506
Police officer in Massachusetts angered by second-graders' Ferguson protest:
A protest put on by a group of second-graders in Massachusetts has sparked controversy, but the school says it was just teaching the kids a lesson in civics.
The peaceful demonstration happened on Friday, a spokesperson for the Alma del Mar Charter School in New Bedford told ABC News today. Second-graders gathered in front of the school with signs, some that said "Honk For Justice," after learning about the deaths of Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, both at the hands of police officers. "A group of scholars played on the playground while other scholars held their demonstration without incident," Will Gardner, the school's executive director, said today in a statement. But the protest went awry when a friend of a police officer, whose daughter attends the school, saw the students and alerted him that his 7-year-old daughter was taking part, the spokesman said. That father, George Borden, told The Boston Globe he believed the event was anti-police and shouldn't be condoned by the school. While Alma del Mar says the protest was the students' idea, Borden disagrees. "I don't think 7-year-olds can come up with the idea to go out and protest on the street," he told the newspaper. ABC News could not reach Borden for comment, but Borden's father, who is also named George, said he agrees with his son. "What second grader wants to give up recess to go stand on a busy street corner and chant, 'We want justice'?" he said. "My son's a cop, so he's really upset, and after his daughter got in the car, she asked if he shoots people." http://abcnews.go.com/US/graders-ferguson-protest-sparks-controversy/story?id=27634646
CNN's #AskACop triggers anti-police backlash:
When CNN called on Twitter users to offer up questions for a panel of police officers on an upcoming segment called "Cops Under Fire," it instead elicited a flood of sarcasm, outrage and derision centered on recent high-profile incidents of police violence.
Thanks to the backlash, the hashtag #AskACop climbed to the top of the list of U.S. Twitter trends Tuesday night.
The network should have known what it was getting itself into. When NYPD called on New Yorkers to tweet out pictures with cops in an effort to drum up goodwill for the department this April, the campaign was overrun with pictures depicting police brutality.
Click here to see the actual Tweets CNN received.