In an appearance on Monday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “The Kelly File,” Chuck Canterbury, the president of the National Fraternal Order Police denied the allegations aimed at police nationwide that they sometimes tend to profile based on race.
Canterbury argued New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s rhetoric on the police was wrong and that his call for police reform in his city where crime was low before his tenure was misguided.
Transcript as follows:
KELLY: Chuck Canterbury is president of the National Fraternal Order of Police. We begin with him. Chuck, good to see you tonight. Did the police, were they too disrespectful to the mayor?
CANTERBURY: Well, Megyn, first of all, respect is earned, and I believe in this particular case after the assassination of two of their comrades in arms, emotions led to their belief that they could not look at Mayor de Blasio with any kind of a respect. And I believe they made that decision individually they made that decision. And I have to standby that decision because in the position they’re in losing a fellow comrade or comrades they did what they felt they had to do.
KELLY: Is this about blaming the mayor for those deaths? Or is that — is it about a general aggravation and disdain for him and his rhetoric as of late?
CANTERBURY: Well, Megyn, this mayor ran on a campaign of police reform in the city that’s reduced crime by 80 percent. It went from 2,000 murders a year down to less than 365 a year.
KELLY: He’s out there a bunch of racial profilers based on stop and frisk. He said it — he suggested that many times.
CANTERBURY: Well, he’s absolutely wrong. Racial profiling has been against the law in this country for years. No police department in the United States trains to racially profile. That’s a buzzword that people like Sharpton likes to use.
KELLY: He’s talked about his own son. He talks – he’s repeatedly mentioned his son, Dante, and how they had to train him on how he, you know, he needed to be distrustful of the police.
CANTERBURY: All parents in this country should teach their children respect for law enforcement. That’s — that’s a parental duty. I — applauding for — for teaching this child respect, but that’s what he ought to be showing the police officers in his own city is the respect that they’ve earned.
KELLY: How bad is it? Because Bill Bratton, the police commissioner who seems he still have the support and respect of the police so far, defended the mayor today, and here’s what he said. Let’s listen to Bill Bratton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM BRATTON, NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT, COMMISSIONER: Do some officers not like this mayor — guaranteed, somebody who’ve been around this time for a while. Can you point out to me one mayor that has not been battling with the police unions in the last 50 years? Name one. Name one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Your thoughts on that.
CANTERBURY: Well, Megyn, that — that statement though-we — we can’t forget that commissioner Bratton works for Mayor de Blasio, hired by de Blasio, can be fired by de Blasio. I’ve — I expect that kind of — of decision from Bratton and that kind of talk. But the bottom-line is respect is earned. And this mayor has not earned the respect of the men in blue — men and women in blue and in the City of New York and — and perhaps the 800,000 state and local police officers around the country.
You know, enough is enough. They’ve — they’ve accused these police officers in the last four or five months of heinous acts and then when two police officers are assassinated in that city, he cannot hide from the remarks that he’s made, and I don’t blame the police officers for being upset. Police officers all over this country are upset at politicians that spew rhetoric and then expect law enforcement to quail the riots that they caused.
KELLY: Chuck, thank you for being here.
CANTERBURY: Thanks for having me, Megyn.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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