Missouri State Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D) expressed confidence in Berkeley, MO Mayor Theodore Hoskins to handle the fatal shooting of a man by the police in part because Hoskins “shops black, he eats black” on Wednesday’s “Wolf” on CNN.
“Let me tell you something about Mayor Hoskins, he is one of the most pro-black elected officials that I’ve ever known. He shops black, he eats black, he does everything African-American. And so he is by far different than what you have seen in Ferguson, which is a pushoff, a brushoff. He is very on hand in this situation. When we were in a meeting earlier, the entire table was filled with African-Americans, not one Caucasian. And I have to tell you that people are very sensitive to this situation, not only is the police force sensitive to this, but also employees of Berkeley and the mayor and people who are in the Berkeley community. And so again I have to tell you, this approach is very different, and so the way you see this investigation handled. It’s going to be cleaner, more transparent. And I think that people just need some time to breathe in all that is going on and look at the facts. That is what is most important” she stated.
Chappelle-Nadal also rejected comparisons between the case in Berkeley and the case in Ferguson, saying “what we are trying to communicate are the facts this is quite a different situation than the Mike Brown killing…it is important to note that what is being said on Twitter and other social media, much of it is incorrect. For example, many people believed that there wasn’t an EMS that attempted to verify that the young man was killed and he was dead. That is untrue. The mayor ended up showing up in just a few minutes after the encounter between the police officer and the victim here. And so what we are trying to do is communicate the facts of the case. This is by far, as the mayor has stated, as well as others, it is different from Ferguson.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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