Columnist Pat Buchanan praised President Obama’s speech after the riots in Baltimore, but said that the charges brought against six police officers in Freddie Gray’s death were “overdone” on Friday’s “McLaughlin Group.”
Buchanan said, “after the riot started, the president came down with some very tough, and I think correct language, condemning the rioters, and the thieves, and the looters. And so, I think he did the right thing, and I don’t have too much of a problem at all with what he said initially, because it is true.”
He added, “but let me tell you, on Friday, John, they came down with indictments for six police officers, after 100 had been injured in these riots, six police officers on charges ranging from second degree murder to manslaughter, to negligent homicide, to neglect of their duties. And the charges look to me — although this is a tragic death, and something happened to that fellow, Freddie Gray — the charges to me looked like they are clearly overdone. And I can’t see how a prosecutor, from what we know, can convict these cops of anything worse than negligent homicide, failing to do their duty, and taking this fellow to a hospital.”
He concluded, “but let me tell you, we are headed for the type of situation we had in Los Angeles when Rodney King’s trial was held, and those four fellows in Simi Valley, those four cops, and they were exonerated. And you had the worst riot we had since the 1960s. It happened in LA”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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