Word is circulating in DC that several people at CNN may be on the chopping block because of a last Tuesday interview gone horribly wrong by the standards of CNN.
By less leftist and more reasonable standards, it went very well and served the cable news network right for assuming a person’s views just because of their skin color.
Burke County, GA, Sheriff Alfonzo Williams said in an interview last Tuesday that Atlanta police Officer Garrett Rolfe was “completely justified” in shooting 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks, whose death sparked a new round of riots.
“This is the third law enforcement agency I’ve been head of,” Williams, who is black, told CNN. “Every agency I’ve gone to, I’ve required every officer who carries a Taser to be tased with it, so that you understand the incapacitation.”
The problem for CNN was that show bookers had assumed, because Williams is black, the sheriff would criticize the shooting and chalk it up to racial hatred. When Williams went south on them the reporter was caught flat-footed and tried to retrieve the interview gone bad, to comical results.
Burke County, Georgia, Sheriff Alfonzo Williams says the shooting of Rayshard Brooks was “completely justified.”
“There's nothing malicious or sadistic in the way these officers behaved,” he says, adding that this case can't be compared to those of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd. pic.twitter.com/Px6hwdffZN— CNN News Central (@NewsCentralCNN) June 16, 2020
Williams laid out his case:
“Five seconds; 1,001, 1,002, 1,003, 1,004, 1,005. That’s five whole seconds [when] if an officer is hit with that Taser that he, all of his muscles will be locked up and he’ll have the inability to move and to respond. And yet he is still responsible for every weapon on his belt. So, if that officer had been hit, he still has a firearm on his side and the likelihood of him being stomped in the head or having his firearm taken and used against him was a probability. And so he did what he needed to do. And this was a completely justified shooting.”
“So you think lethal force here was necessary?” asked CNN anchor Brianna Keilar, trying to spin her way out of the predicament. But Williams had already said it was.
He argued that the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution permits it in this type of situation, saying, “There’s nothing malicious or sadistic in the way these officers behaved. It’s very unfortunate that the law enforcement leaders in the state of Georgia have not come out and stood together on this case. I think it’s political and it’s senseless.
“We’re sending the wrong message to our black youth,” he added. “We’re telling them that it’s OK, that they can run from the police, that they can take a weapon from the police, they can fight with the police, and point their weapon at the police, and expect nothing to happen. That is the wrong message to send to black youth.”
Then hilariously, after Williams has confidently said numerous times that he is certain Rolfe acted accordingly, Keilar pathetically squeaks out: “It sounds like you don’t know. It sounds like you are saying perhaps there could be a possibility that maybe that escalation to the use of the Taser might not have happened then if it were a white man [under arrest].”
Williams had said precisely the opposite during the entire interview. But Keilar knows how bad it is and is trying to salvage one or two lines to cover herself. It isn’t working.
“I’m not saying that at all,” Williams responded. “I’m saying that what happened in the Brooks case is completely justified, 100 percent. And an officer generally goes to work every day, he’s not concerned about whether a perpetrator is black or white. He’s there to do a job.”
More law enforcement chiefs like Williams are sorely needed in this nation. And it also almost goes without saying, after that example of deranged unsuccessful spin, less anchors like Keilar would do this country well.
This piece was written by David Kamioner on June 22, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
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