On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Outnumbered Overtime,” Fraternal Order of Police National Vice President Joe Gamaldi stated that George Floyd’s killing “was abhorrent” and stated that police need “some reforms” such as “a nationwide de-escalation training for officers.”
Gamaldi said, “I think we absolutely need to have all of these conversations. What happened in Minneapolis was abhorrent. And we all need to be talking with our communities. We need to be listening right now, and we need to see, can we come together on a few different issues? Because, listen, we can all agree that what happened in Minneapolis was wrong, right? And we can all agree that, for the most part, police officers are doing a fantastic job. Those things aren’t mutually exclusive.”
He continued, “But we can also agree that there [need] to be some reforms like a nationwide de-escalation training for officers. And that’s something that we can get behind, but we all need to be at the table, and we’d all need to be having this discussion together.”
Gamaldi also addressed calls to defund the police, which he said is an “insane” idea that will hurt law-abiding citizens. And said that peaceful protesters should not be lumped in with rioters.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett