Bill O'Reilly dedicated his "Talking Points Memo" segment Monday night to push back against the notion that there is wide-spread, racist abuse of black people by white police officers sweeping the nation. The instigation for his segment came from a column written by Michael Eric Dyson in the New York Times where he urged for action to combat "the plague of white cops who kill unarmed black youth" in America.
On Tuesday, the president doubled down on his indictment of “criminal acts” and declared, “I do not have any sympathy” for those who destroy “your own communities.” While he avoided saying so, it was clear that his remarks were directed at the black people who looted and rioted in Ferguson. But their criminal activity is the effect of going unrecognized by the state for decades, a crime in itself. As for the plague of white cops who kill unarmed black youth, the facts of which are tediously and sickeningly repetitive and impose a psychological tariff on black minds, the president was vague, halting and sincerely noncommittal.
O'Reilly slammed Dyson's claim and laid out data refuting the volatile assertion:
- Police killings of blacks down 70% in last 50 years
- In 2012, 123 blacks were killed by police with a gun
- In 2012, 326 whites were killed with a gun
(Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, CDC)
- In 2013, blacks committed 5,375 murders
- In 2013, whites committed 4,396 murders
- Whites are 63% of the population blacks are 13%
(FBI, Census Bureau)
O'Reilly took these statistics to mean that “anyone thinking clearly can see that the homicide rate among blacks is way out of proportion." O'Reilly asserted that the disparity of homicide rates explained the "police intrusion into black precincts.”
He then interviewed Benjamin Crump, the attorney for Michael Brown's family, to debate the issue. Watch the entire segment above.