A California District Attorney has fired back at Jon Stewart of Comedy Central's The Daily Show for misrepresenting the facts in a case his department handled in San Bernardino recently.
In a commentary on the events in Ferguson Monday night, the comedian attempted to link Michael Brown's death to the deaths of other black men at the hands of police across the country. One case, in particular, Stewart referenced was the case of Dante Parker, a black man who died in the hospital after a confrontation he had with a female police officer during a suspected break-in. Before being hit with a taser multiple times, Parker had been reportedly "combative and uncooperative" and threatened the officer's life. He later died in the hospital from the drugs that were in his system.
While not explicitly claiming that San Bernardino officers "shot" Parker, Stewart did lump Parker's case in with the "police shooting" of Tamir Rice and various other young black men. In a Youtube video, San Bernardino District Attorney Mike Ramos calmly rebuked Stewart for calling Dante Parker's death a "police shooting" and laid out the facts. He also pointed out some glaring hypocrisy.
We need to talk about the men and women, our law enforcement officers, that protect us on a daily basis and what they do everyday to risk their lives. Nobody is talking about that.
These are men and women that not only protect us but they have families that they want to go home to at night as well. The most serious cases are officers that have been shot in the line of duty, killed in the line of duty. We recently had one officer in the city of San Bernardino that was shot in the head by a gang member and continues to fight for his life.
We lead the state in California of officers being killed in the line of duty. Why isn't anybody protesting and marching about that?
Don't ever forget who it is you call when you or your family are in an emergency or about to be victimized. When you pick up that phone and you call 911, whose going to answer that call?
