April 10, 2015

It was quite the scene on Hannity as one guest suggested that Walter Scott was the guilty party in his own shooting death and the other guest, after announcing, “I am not going to sit here and listen to this, this, this hate,” walked out.

I’ve previously been very critical of Sean Hannity’s race-baiting but if anything, his declarations of white S.C. police officer Michael Slager’s guilt in the shooting death of African American Scott were a bit too absolute for my taste, before the man has been tried. “You do not shoot an innocent man in the back eight times, in cold blood like this!” Hannity announced.

However, the choice of guests (which may not have been Hannity’s doing) ensured that racial hate and heat would ensue. Light and learning would be optional.

On one side, was Hannity’s African American slavery-loving pal, Jesse Lee Peterson. “I’m not justifying at all the action of the police officer,” Peterson said, “but what I am saying is that we, as American citizens, owe it to the officer to give him the benefit of the doubt and to wait until we get all the information.”

Agreed. But what Peters really meant was that the officer deserved the benefit of the doubt because Blacks Behave So Badly.

PETERS: Right now, Sean, white officers are under attack by angry black folks in this country. And when they get stopped by police officers, they are not listening. They are not obeying… the police officer.

…All that I’m saying is that we should wait for due process because I don’t think Americans understand how angry and brainwashed these young black folks are. There’s been an element of black Americans who have been listening to people like these race hustlers…

The other guest was the volatile Leo Terrell. He interrupted Peters to make such comments as, “You’re an embarrassment to the world right now! The whole world is looking at how stupid you are!” and “I am not going to sit here and listen to this, this, this hate.”

Terrell stuck around a bit longer when Hannity said that Peterson’s comments were “a topic for another day.” Hannity futher announced, “In this case, the legal justifiable use of force is clear. He is not a threat to anybody! I think it’s irrelevant what happened leading up to this, based on the video.”

But when Peterson resumed talking, Terrell said, “I’m done, I’m done, I’m done!”

Peterson continued his attack on African Americans, talking about gang members in Los Angeles “openly robbing” homes and “the good folks" who are "afraid to call the police officers and they know who is doing it but they fear for their lives.”

While Peterson spoke, we saw Terrell on the split screen, removing his ear piece and walking off the set. Peterson called Terrell “a little coward” when he found out Terrell had gone.

That left Hannity to vehemently argue, “That tape is overwhelming, incontrovertible evidence that this man was shot innocently in the back. He’s not the judge, jury and executioner here. He doesn’t get to fire against a guy that’s not a threat to anybody. …You don’t shoot an innocent person that’s not a threat in the back! That’s murder!”

Peterson replied, “This guy wasn’t innocent. He had a warrant out on him… Had he not run away, he would be alive today.”

Yet not one of them seemed to see the larger, more important point: Had there been no video, Slager probably would have gotten away with murder. Hannity would almost certainly have been siding with Jesse Lee Peterson. Heck, he probably would have trotted out his old pal, Rudy Giuliani to lecture African Americans that their real problem is black on black crime.

[crossposted at Newshounds]

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