Trump Ally Defends Buffalo Police Tactics Despite Video Depicting Violent Attack on Protester
A prominent defender of President Trump sided with law enforcement even after a widely circulated video showed a man being pushed to the ground by police, causing bleeding from the head which required a hospital visit.
“When a police officer tells you to move when there is a curfew, you move. When a police officer tells you to back up, you back up,” Bernie Kerik told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Friday.
“You’re not supposed to stick your finger in his face. You’re not supposed to touch him, you’re not supposed to throw something on him. They have been bombarded with bricks, molotov cocktails, bottles, sticks, you name it, and…at some point in time, you’re going to push the wrong cop and he is going to push back, and in this case, that is what happened.”
The man is hospitalized in serious but stable condition, authorities said, according to CNN.
Two police officers in Buffalo, New York, were suspended after shoving a protester in this incident that was caught on video. An official said the man was hospitalized with a head injury.
The video contains vulgarity and disturbing images. https://t.co/A2Q92yP65q pic.twitter.com/DXq54eDZN8
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 5, 2020
The initial police report stated that the man “tripped and fell,” but the video clearly shows he was shoved. The incident led to two Buffalo, New York police officers being suspended. 57 officers then resigned from the force’s emergency response team in protest of this decision.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, meanwhile, called the event “wholly unjustified and utterly disgraceful.”
Kerik, a former commissioner of the New York Police Department, is a frequent Fox News guest. He was granted a pardon by President Trump earlier this year after serving time for tax fraud and making false statements to the federal government.
Watch the video above, via Fox News.