Two police officers were shot last night in Ferguson, Missouri, during protests inspired by the resignation of Police Chief Tom Jackson. The pair of officers were expected to live, but both suffered serious wounds – one was shot in the shoulder, the other shot in the face.
Ferguson has been the site of extreme racial tension ever since the shooting of Michael Brown was turned into a liberal political football. The Department of Justice was determined to make somebody pay, and the police department was targeted by a report suggesting that there was rampant racial profiling surrounding officers in Ferguson.
That report led directly to Jackson’s resignation.
Don’t think Judge Andrew Napolitano let that series of events escape scrutiny however, telling Fox and Friends that Attorney General Eric Holder was responsible for ‘fanning the flames’ for the violence that occurred last night.
Via Fox Insider:
Judge Andrew Napolitano was asked this morning whether Attorney General Eric Holder has “fanned the flames” in Ferguson, Missouri, where two police officers were shot last night.
The new unrest came after the resignation of the Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson.
On Friday, Holder said the DOJ was prepared to use all of its powers to “ensure that the situation changes” in Ferguson, including possibly “coming up with an entirely new structure.”
A reporter then asked whether he meant dismantling the Ferguson police department.
“If that’s what’s necessary, we’re prepared to do that,” he said.
Napolitano said he views Holder’s actions as having “probably fanned the flames” of anger against police in Ferguson.
He disagreed with Holder’s decision to publish two “highly antagonistic” reports, one of which concluded that Ferguson police routinely discriminated against African-Americans.
Napolitano added that Holder’s comments about dismantling the Ferguson police department is the kind of talk that “feeds right into the appetite of the mobs.”
He also cited a case under President Bush, in which a federal monitor was put in place to ‘put the flames out,’ the exact opposite of what Holder did in this scenario.
Do you agree with the Judge? Does Eric Holder bear some blame for the mob mentality in Ferguson, Missouri?
