CNN Analyst Says Mike Brown Was “A Criminal Who Tried To Kill A Police Officer And Is Dead”
Apparently, CNN wanted to get their viewers’ blood pressure way up on Monday morning as they decided to schedule a sure-to-be contentious panel discussion revolving around the previous night’s events in Ferguson. On the one-year anniversary of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown’s death at the hands of former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, violence broke out during late-night demonstrations that resulted in plain-clothes police officers wounding an alleged shooter. The shooter, identified as 18-year-old Tyrone Harris, has since been charged with ten felonies for his involvement in the shooting, in which witnesses heard at least 40 gunshots fired.
To discuss the violence that marred the weekend’s remembrance — another shooting occurred later in the evening near Brown’s memorial — host Anna Cabrera brought on ex-NYPD detective and CNN analyst Harry Houck and radio personality Mo Ivory. As anyone who has witnessed a Houck segment should know by now, placing him in a discussion with anyone critical of the police, especially a black person, is going to lead to him saying something actively offensive and inflammatory. Monday morning was no different.
After Cabrera ran down the events of the evening, she turned to both Ivory and Houck for their individual takes on the violence that occurred overnight. Early on, the two were relatively civil, with Ivory giving the standard pro-#BlackLivesMatter talking points while Houck spouted out his normal rah-rah police rhetoric. However, it got more heated when Ivory responded to Cabrera regarding whether or not police are in a no-win situation regarding these anti-police brutality demonstrations. The radio host and activist said the following:
I think there is a real reason why police officers’ actions are going to be criticized. There’s an awful history of excessive police brutality against African-Americans in Ferguson, and for that matter, across the country. So I don’t really think from a police officer side it’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Just don’t. Don’t use excessive force and then you won’t be in that situation.”
Well, that didn’t sit too well with Houck, and he decided that he was going to bring up Brown and his feeling that the young black man deserved to die one year ago. Rather than answer a question about police tactics from Cabrera, the former cop went right into denigrating a dead teen’s character, leading to a shouting match with Ivory.
HOUCK: You can look at this incident where Michael Brown was a criminal who tried to kill a police officer and is dead as a result of that.
IVORY: Harry, that’s a real dramatization of what Michael Brown was!
HOUCK: The facts indicate that!
IVORY: A lot of people do not believe that Michael Brown was a criminal!
HOUCK: I know the facts don’t matter to you, madam, but that is a FACT!
Whenever you absolutely, positively, need your news show to devolve into a raging dumpster fire within a period of minutes, just book Houck on with a liberal black guest. It works 100% of the time.
Below is video of the segment, courtesy of Raw Story:
