Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker argued the “irony” of the Black Lives Matter movement is that those “most victimized by crime” are African-Americans on Wednesday’s “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel.
Walker said of the DNC’s attempts to court support from the Black Lives Matter movement, “I don’t get it, but we should speak out, whether you’re Republican, or Democrat, or anyone in between, anyone who’s involved in police violence, we need to speak out about that once and for all. I’m here in San Antonio, Texas, earlier today I spoke out about the cold-blooded assassination of a deputy sheriff in Harris County over outside of Houston. You look at Darren Goforth, he has — now has a widow and two children, because all he was doing was pumping gas into his squad car, and someone came up and put 15 shots into him, why? As the sheriff said, largely, — they suspect because he was wearing the uniform of the law enforcement. That is outrageous, that’s not the America I grew up in, and I don’t think that’s the America we want our children to grow up in. We need to speak out about anything like that, and we need to stand up and protect the men and women who protect us every single day. I’ll stand up for the law enforcement officials, the police officers, the sheriff[‘s] deputies, and the troopers any time they’re under attack.”
When asked whether he believes law enforcement officials are “afraid to do their jobs,” due to the protests and treatment of officers in Ferguson and Baltimore, Walker responded, “Yeah, I hear that from law enforcement around the country. They’re very concerned. The irony is when you think it, when you think about the Black Lives [Matter] movement out there, who are some of the most victimized by crime in American in our biggest cities? They’re African-Americans. They’re some of the very people that need our help the most from law enforcement. The overwhelming majority of law enforcement in this country are standing up, and doing the right thing, they’re putting their lives on the line every single day. And yeah, if somebody does something wrong, we should call them out, and hold them accountable. That’s why I’m proud of my state. I’m the first governor in America who signed a law that said if there’s a death of a suspect in police custody, there needs to be an independent investigation, why? Because it protects not just the public, it protects the police officer. Because overwhelmingly they’re doing their job. And we want to make sure the public knows that, so we don’t see this kind of nonsense where they’re targeting police officers, sheriff[‘s] deputies, or anyone anybody else who wears the uniform and the badge.”
Walker concluded, in response to a question about President Obama being “virtually silent” about the attacks on police, “This is yet another example where the president of the United States needs to put politics aside, and stand up and do the right thing, lead in this country, that’s what leaders do. I knew that as a county executive, I knew that as a governor, as a chief executive, you’ve got to stand up and lead on behalf of everyone in your jurisdiction, whether they voted for you or not. And now more than ever, America’s crying out for leadership from the president to stand up and call out what’s going on here. We need to stand up for law enforcement. And we need to make sure that they protect people, and are trained right, so they continue to protect people in every community across the country.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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