August 21, 2013

(h/t Heather for the video)

Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points Memo Tuesday night focused on the controversial "Stop-and-Frisk" program in NYC because after federal judge ruled that it violates civil rights and needs to be changed, NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have been screaming on teevee that armageddon will take place if it's not re-instituted immediately. So Bill O'Reilly took to his megaphone to help fear-monger the issue for his pals: Why the debate over Stop-and-Frisk is so intense.

Chicago has become his new whipping boy, but he took it further along this time by inviting the father of slain Chicago teen, Hadiya Pendleton, to plead his case.

You may remember that she performed in a parade celebrating Obama's second inauguration and a week later, she was killed, shot while in a park with her friends. Fox News then used her death to attack new gun control legislation by saying that since she was slain with a handgun the new regulations would be useless. (Check out the video here) Seriously, they did that.

BIll O'Reilly opened up last night's segment by telling the folks that the Windy City has turned into Afghanistan. (I've been in Chicago many times and Afghanistan, it is not.) Bill has been lecturing black communities on how to change their culture in recent weeks, so now he's using the crime that arises out of severe poverty to defend Stop-and-Frisk.

O'Reilly: Throwing out Stop-and-Frisk would be madness!

Stop-and-Frisk and all the racial profiling that goes along with it are good because it's all those hoodies that are doing all the killing, people!. He uses some useless stats to say how successful S&F has been since Dinkins was ousted. The NYCLU has some real data that debunks the myths Bill and his compadres have been using to justify themselves.

He then brings on Nathanial Pendleton to discuss his position:

Bill O’Reilly opened his show Tuesday night by laying out his defense for the controversial “stop-and-frisk” program in New York City, arguing that it would be “madness” for the NYPD to stop using it. From there, he invited Nathanial Pendleton, father of murdered Chicago teen Hadiya Pendleton, on to explain why even after his daughter was shot and killed, he doesn’t want his city to adopt “stop-and-frisk.”

“Throwing out stop-and-frisk would be madness,” O’Reilly said in his “Talking Points Memo” segment. As an example hie pointed to Chicago. “The violence there could be stopped,” he argued, “by flooding the zone with police on literally every corner of dangerous neighborhoods. But if the city did that, you would hear the howls of indignation from the racial hustlers, who would rather see kids die than admit there is an acute social and criminal problem in many poor precincts.”

Pendleton began by saying unequivocally, “Stop-and-frisk against minorities is totally unfair.” He said, “I think tougher gun laws is a much better deterrent than just making people, pulling, criminalizing people for what you may think this guy may have–” O’Reilly pushed him to “reconsider” his position, saying he has a chance to “cut this kind madness down,” but Pendleton countered, “I can’t reconsider, because it could be a lot of innocent, young men being criminalized for walking up the street.”

I felt bad for Nathanial but he hung in there pretty well with Bill.

Dylan Matthews of the Washington Post writes a great take down of the claims Ray Kelly has been making about S&F: Ray Kelly says stop & frisk saves lives. There’s no good evidence for that.

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