I am absolutely disgusted right now.
Jeffrey Follmer, former head of the Cleveland Police Patrolman's Association, is really showing his true, vile, racist little heart on All In today. Ari Mebler, who is filling in on Chris Hayes tonight, god bless him, is keeping up with him and pushing back against the bullshit nonsense he is spewing right now.
First of all, he is taking ABSOLUTELY DEMANDING that a Cleveland Browns football player Andrew Hawkins apologize for wearing a "Justice for John Crawford and Tamir Rice" t-shirt on television this past Sunday. And lemme just say how fucking vile, disgusting and bullshit it is for some douche from a police union demand that those calling for justice apologize for those calls. But his comments went much farther than calling for those who want REAL justice for black men to bend the knee for killer cops.
A little later on in the segment, he not only refers to Tamir Rice, the 12 year old boy tragically shot down by trigger happy police as a man but put in no uncertain terms that the shooting was 100% justified. He said this as the All In crew played a side-by-side of Follmer talking and the heartbreaking security cam video of Tamir Rice's death. That is the newsworthy piece of this interview, because it goes to the heart of the culture and values system of police officers in this country. A twelve year old boy with a fake gun is fatally shot down by police and yet critics of police, those that don't take them at their word, those that doubt that these internal police investigations are fair, those that don't believe the criminal justice system represents any sort of justice for people of color in this country must apologize.
Toward the end of the segment as a grand finale, Follmer trots out the old "If you listen to us you wouldn't be dead right now" gem. Remember folks -- its easy! Just do everything we tell you exactly when we tell you and you wont be dead. By the way, you have 3 seconds before your life is over. No pressure!
This is getting fucking ridiculous. Nobody is attacking police, nobody is doubting the role that police play in society, nobody is discounting the NECESSITY of a functioning police departments. But do not expect us to sit back while innocent people die in the streets and expect to apologize for our cynicism. Don't sit there and tell us to ignore our lying eyes and the part of our brain that recognizes patterns, and don't demand we apologize when we speak up. Further, dont you sit there and say that laypeople with no "direct experience" in criminal justice can't make moral judgments about police behavior. Some things are just so egregious, so unjust, so absolutely ridiculous, that criticism is not only warranted but necessary to make change. If anything, its you and your buddies in blue who should be apologizing for the deaths of John Crawford and Tamir Rice, and then investigating these deaths in a fair and unbiased fashion, and bringing those officers who are found accountable to justice. The criticism wont stop until that happens, and you can prove that it has happened. Until then, don't sit there and cry about criticism.
Yanno, for people who face danger every single day, some of these cops have really thin skin and easily harmed fee-fees.
edit: weezilgirl has a good suggestion for all of us
link
This is from the heart. It is written by BY JOHNSON BADEMOSI from the Cleveland Browns. He is my new hero!
Edit 2:
here is a link to the video of the interview for all who have not yet seen it on the morning crew. Warning before opening -- its fucking horrendous.