May 9, 2015

Once again, Kelly proved that what she demanded of the Freddie Gray family didn’t apply to her or her like-minded guests on Fox News.

Kelly recently badgered Jason Downs, attorney for the Freddie Gray family, demanding that he and the family accept the decision of the Maryland state prosecutor whether or not she chose to prosecute any Baltimore police over Gray’s fatal injuries incurred while in their custody. Now that the prosecutor has charged six officers, Kelly has been actively working to undermine the case. She did so Thursday night and again last night.

Kelly’s introduction to last night’s effort sounded like a press release for the accused police officers. She excitedly recounted, without question, what seemed like every detail of their demand to have the prosecutor removed from the case:

KELLY: Breaking tonight! Attorneys for the six Baltimore cops accused of killing Freddie Gray want this prosecutor off of this case, alleging that she is biased and demanding that the charges against these officers be dropped.

…Attorneys for the so-called Baltimore Six say DA Marilyn Mosby HAS to go! Alleging her husband is a city councilmember in charge of the district where Freddie Gray was killed, so they believe, she has a vested interest in pleasing those constituents. Also alleging that she has personal relationships with witnesses in the case. And that she is close friends with the attorney for Freddie Gray’s family.

This, on top of the revelation earlier that the DA’s chief investigator was demoted by the Baltimore police department, had a swat team sent to his home for a drunken incident involving a gun! And, after he became uncooperative with the police, was actually tased by them! The same cops he’s investigating! Which raises some questions about his objectivity.

It wasn’t until “straight news anchor” Kelly spoke with conservative guest Andrew McCarthy that she got around to mentioning she thinks the effort to remove Mosby is “not going anywhere.”

The other guest was Sheriff David Clarke, a likely candidate for mayor of Milwaukee, who was back again for what seem like daily visits to Fox News.

Despite his frequent Fox appearances, Sheriff Clarke seemed shockingly uninformed about the facts.

CLARKE: She’s been the Baltimore mayor for four years, Megyn, since 2010. If she had some inkling that there were some issues of patterns and practices within the Baltimore police department, she should have said something earlier on.

Had Clarke bothered to do a simple Google search, he could have easily learned that Rawlings-Blake has “said something.” More importantly, she has tried to do something. On April 11, the day before Freddie Gray was arrested, The Baltimore Sun reported on Rawlings-Blake’s efforts to get legislation passed in an article headlined, “Rawlings-Blake to push for bills addressing police brutality complaints.” The New York Times noted this week, “The Justice Department has been considering a civil rights investigation of Baltimore for years, current and former officials said, but held off because the city appeared willing to make changes. In the fall, Ms. Rawlings-Blake asked for the Justice Department’s help in examining the practices and procedures of the force.”

Rather than correct the record, Kelly helped validate the falsehood by adding, “Instead, she’s jumping up and down welcoming the DOJ in.” Kelly sneered, “The DOJ loves to come in! They want to take over policing in this country!” This is at least the second time Kelly has made this inflammatory accusation – without providing any grounds for it.

From there, Kelly focused on why the case against the cops “may be unraveling.”

Clarke, who has no law degree, all but announced that all the criminal charges should be tossed.

CLARKE: There might be some standing somewhere in a civil, as a civil tort for that sort of thing but it doesn’t belong in a criminal court. This thing is starting to unravel… and it’s gonna be highly unlikely, I believe, that she’s gonna be able to prove a murder charge and a manslaughter charge beyond a reasonable doubt.

And it’s funny, but Kelly seemed to have forgotten all about her lecture to the Gray family attorney about how they should “trust in the system and the folks running it.”

Watch Megyn Kelly’s double standard above, from last night’s The Kelly File.

Crossposted at News Hounds.
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