Sean Hannity: Freddie Gray Deserved His Fate Because He Wasn’t A “Pillar Of The Community”
Demonstrators took to the streets of Baltimore on Wednesday to protest the declaration of a mistrial for Officer William Porter, one of six cops who have been charged in the death of Freddie Gray. The protests were largely calm and the city did not experience any large-scale acts of violence. Even though Porter’s trial ended in a hung jury, it is likely that the case will be retried. However, the mistrial could have serious implications regarding the other officers’ cases, as the prosecution had hoped they could flip Porter to serve as a witness.
Of course, when it comes to discussing the case and the social impact of Gray’s death, who better to turn to for sober analysis than Fox News’ Sean Hannity. During Wednesday night’s broadcast of Hannity, the Fox host held a panel discussion on the case and decided it would be a good time to inform his viewers that the deceased Gray had a lengthy arrest record, meaning that he probably deserved everything that was coming to him.
Speaking to Fox News contributor Bo Dietl and attorney Eric Guster, Hannity repeatedly brought up Gray’s rap sheet and pointed out that Gray ran from cops at 8:30 AM on the day he was killed. Both Guster and Dietl (surprise) told Hannity that Gray’s legal history had no bearing on whether or not he deserved to die at the hands of the Baltimore cops, especially during a trial. However, Hannity insisted that while it may not matter to a court, it “matters in reality.”
Guster asked the conservative commentator if it is okay for someone to die if they’ve been arrested a bunch of times, to which Hannity responded that he wasn’t saying that. Hannity then was told by Guster that he was implying that Gray deserved to die, leading to this unbelievable response:
“No, I’m saying that he’s obviously not a pillar of the community. And the problem is that the cops knew him, and he ran from the cops. Who runs from the cops at 8:30 in the morning?”
A visibly frustrated Guster finally exclaimed, “So what? He’s still a man who deserves a fair trial!”
Normally, Hannity at least tries to hide his open disdain for the black community a little better than this. However, in the Age of Trump, anything and everything goes now.
Below is video of the segment, courtesy of Media Matters:
