On Monday, TruthRevolt founder Ben Shapiro appeared on CNN with Don Lemon and Van Jones to discuss the recently-released recording of what is supposed to be the moment officer Darren Wilson shot the unarmed black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The recording has not been officially verified as authentic.
Lemon and his guests discussed a recent poll showing that only 18 percent of whites think the shooting of Michael Brown was unjustified versus 57 percent of blacks. The poll also showed that 68 percent of whites stated they "don't know enough" versus 38 percent of blacks.
Asked why there was such a great disparity between the races, CNN's Van Jones stated the polls simply represented a "ink blot test" in which people saw what they wanted to see based on their backgrounds.
"What's going on here is African-Americans have a different experience with law enforcement," said Jones. "We're jumping to negative conclusions about law enforcement, because law enforcement often jumps to negative conclusions about 'African-Americans'"
Shapiro agreed with Jones that the poll does somewhat represent what could be considered a Rorschach test based on people's past experiences, but strongly cautioned that people should just "shut up and wait for all the information to come out":
Shapiro: It’s interesting; when I first heard this tape a few minutes ago, my reaction was the same as Van’s, I think, and as some of the other people’s you’ve had on this program; which is: the pause is the key, if this is what we’re talking about. But- I would caution that I think the biggest factor here is that we just need to shut up and wait for all the information to come out.
I think the biggest problem with this case is exactly what the polls show is not in that second line, “Do you think the officer is guilty or not?” but the third line, “Do we have enough information?” The fact that 68% of white people say we don’t have enough information yet and 39% of black people say we don’t have enough information yet, I agree with Van; This is a Rorschach test, but the problem is 68% of white people say, “Yeah, this is a Rorschach test, it’s an ink blot. I don’t know what this ink blot is. I don’t know if this ink blot is somebody stabbing my mother or whether this ink blot is a butterfly.” And so what we really need in the country if we’re going to get past some of the racial conflict is a recognition that nobody knows what the ink blot is until we actually have enough evidence to show what the ink blot is.
Lemon continued by asking if Shapiro and Jones thought justice would be served in the case, citing the poll's results showing 68 percent of blacks say it wouldn't while 62 percent of whites said it would:
Shapiro: I think the question of whether justice is going to be served here very much depends on maybe some of the political motivations of the people in play, because here’s the reality: If you’re on that grand jury, and you’ve seen all that violence in Ferguson, it’s possible that you’re worried, “Look, I’m not putting this guy behind bars…if I just say, ‘an indictment is a good idea’ and toss it to a jury, then I get off scot-free."
The problem when you have situations like this, is that the public pressure is so high, the furor is so great, the media coverage is so intense, that it perverts the cases beyond what the facts may actually bear. I’ve said all along in this particular case that if the evidence shows that the officer in question did what he’s accused of having done, he shouldn’t just be tried and convicted, he should be on death row, and I think everybody sort of accepts that across the spectrum. Why don’t we wait until the process has taken place, until we at least see all the facts before we start protesting?
