Cenk Uygur To Top Cop Who Justified Tamir Rice Shooting: 'Be A Human'
"Is that too hard to say — ‘We didn’t mean to kill your 12-year-old son. We’re so sorry about that.’”
I must have disagreed with Cenk Uygur over something at some point, but it must not be often, because I can't remember. He is right on the money with these comments on the Tamir Rice shooting. Via Raw Story:
Young Turks host Cenk Uygur blasted Cleveland Patrolmen’s Association head Jeffrey Follmer on Tuesday for his insistence that the shootings of Tamir Rice and John Crawford by local officers were justified.
“Just, for Christ’s sake, be a human for a second,” Uygur said. “And say, ‘We’re so sorry that [a] 12-year-old kid died, man. Obviously we didn’t mean that.’ Is that too hard to say? Is that too hard to say — ‘We didn’t mean to kill your 12-year-old son. We’re so sorry about that.’”
Uygur showed footage of Follmer telling MSNBC host Ari Melber on Monday that Officer Timothy Loehmann was justified in shooting and killing Rice last month, citing footage of the fatal encounter that showed Loehmann killing Rice just two seconds after pulling up near him at a local park.
“The male’s action spoke for itself,” Follmer said. “The video clearly shows, and by the officers’ statement, that they were justified in the deadly force.” Later he added, “This shooting was tragic, but it was justified.
”Follmer also said to Melber, “How about this? Listen to police officers commands, listen to what we tell you, and just stop. I think that eliminates a lot of problems. I have kids too, they know how to respect the law. They know what to do when a police officer comes up to them.”
“You killed him in two seconds — [Rice] didn’t have time to listen to what you said,” Uygur said in response. “This Orwellian prick; we just saw the video, we’ve seen the video a million times. You pull up and you shoot him. You pull up and you shoot him. One-one thousand, two-one thousand and he’s dead.”