Maher: Mike Brown 'Wasn't a Gentle Giant,' Was 'Acting Like a Thug'

Maher: Mike Brown 'Wasn't a Gentle Giant,' Was 'Acting Like a Thug'

On Friday, Bill Maher, host of HBO’s “Real Time” slammed supporters of both Darren Wilson and Michael Brown for ignoring facts.

“Everybody in America just sides with their own people and doesn’t look at the facts. The cops, I saw, on the news a couple of weeks ago, were wearing bracelets, just something that said, ‘I am Darren Wilson.’ Why do you want to throw your lot in with this plain murderer?” He stated.

Maher also criticized Brown’s supporters, saying “and Michael Brown’s people, I’m sorry, but Michael Brown’s people say he’s a gentle giant. Well we saw that video of where he was in the 7-11. No, he wasn’t a gentle giant. He was committing a robbery and he pushed that guy. He was acting like a thug, not like a gentle giant. He surely didn’t deserve to be shot for it.”

Earlier in the discussion, Dr. Cornel West remarked “this [police brutality] is a systemic problem. This is just not Ferguson. This is LA, this is New York, this is Chicago, this is Detroit, this is Miami, we’ve got to have some accountability for arbitrary police power against especially poor young people and disproportionately poor chocolate youth.”

Daily Beast Editor-in-Chief John Avlon responded to West’s comments by arguing “the search for justice can’t be separate for the search for the truth. We’re going to find out what happens in the grand jury and nobody knows more about the grand jury than the people on it…but we’re going to have to deal with the systemic problems and they’re true with Ferguson in particular. We know that to be true. But if this turns out to be not as advertised, that needs to be taken into account,” a sentiment that West agreed with, later adding that Wilson “deserves a fair trial.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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