On Monday’s “OutFront” on CNN, Milwaukee County, WI Sheriff David Clarke took on Marc Lamont Hill over the so-called Black Lives Matter Movement, which is facing heightend scrutiny after the brutal killing of killing of Harris County, TX deputy Darren Goforth on Friday.
Clarke hammered the movement in his opening statement and said they were directly tied to Goforth’s murder.
“I think very fair in light of the anti-cop rhetoric that is sweeping the United States of America, fueled by this group, some of the vulgar, vile, vicious rhetoric coming out talking about killing cops. That’s some of the nice stuff. Some of the stuff I can’t even say here on TV. But there’s no doubt in my mind that the two New York officers, [Rafael] Ramos and [Wenjian] Liu, were gunned down by an individual who made Facebook postings about wanting to kill pigs. And he was going to go out and hunt officers down. There have been officers across the United States who had their cruisers shot at and struck while they patrolled in St. Louis — the same thing. This is part of a pattern. You would have to stick your head in the sand to think this wasn’t fueled by this vile, vulgar, slimy movement.”
Later in the segment, Hill pushed against Clarke for his criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement and said the motivations of Goforth’s killer deserved the scrutiny of an investigation before suggesting the two were related.
“[E]ven if you think those people didn’t get what they deserves, as a police officer, I hope you wouldn’t say two wrongs make a right. If anything, we should be emphasizing due process and investigation here. In this case, the people handling the case in Texas themselves have said, they clearly — we don’t know the motive. So, you are essentially saying that your colleagues in law enforcement who say we don’t know the motive are wrong and you know the motive. The second piece I want to say is your characterization of Black Lives Matter is incorrect. The argument of black lives matter is not to say that police officers should be killed, that police officers should be demonized, that police officers should be marginalized. The argument of Black Lives Matter is that police officers should be held to standards of accountability like everybody else. The increased number of black bodies, which die at the hands of state violence needs to end. While we regard all lives, we cannot exclude black lives.”
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