Fox News Channel’s Geraldo Rivera and Harris Faulkner got into a dust up Tuesday over Rivera’s contention that racial divisions will dominate the judicial process in Ferguson, MO.
“There’s no doubt in my mind but that a grand jury will indict the officer in the case of Michael Brown. It will be political pressure just as it was in Trayvon Martin,” Rivera said on FNC’s “Outnumbered.” “They will be messing with the grand jury system. A prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich if they want to. They will indict this officer and I’ll tell you what will happen. They’ll have a trial, the white jurors will see it one way and the black jurors another. The white jurors will look at that convenience store surveillance tape. They will see Michael Brown menacing that clerk, the white jurors will put themselves in the shoes of that clerk. They’ll say, of course the officer responded the way he did, he was menaced by a 6′ 4″, 300 pound kid, 10 minutes fresh from a strong armed robbery. The officer was defending himself, the white jurors will put themselves in the white officer’s place. The black jurors will see Michael Brown despite his flaws as the surrogate for every black youngsters ever shot by a cop.”
Faulkner took issue with Rivera’s argument, saying that she gives “people more credit.”
“What you’re saying is that the nation is divided, particularly in kind of a microcosm way. Ferguson, MO is divided black and white, and that’s the only issue here. That is poor-sighted, it’s short-sighted and it’s just not true,” she said.
According to Faulker there are a lot more issues at play.
“You have a lot of things happening in that community, outside of the fact that you’ve got blacks and whites. You’ve got an economic situation there that’s poor and that is very much a green issue. You’ve got schools closed. They couldn’t even have the first day of school because of unrest on the streets. You’ve had in some estimations militarization of the police and fear on both sides — police and protestors. You’ve had invaders from the outside come in. This is more than a racial issue and for you to pick off the low hanging fruit is offensive and it insights more of it to go on. It’s irresponsible,” Faulker stressed.
Rivera argued that his analysis is based on his experience in the justice system.
Follow Caroline May on Twitter @c_maydc
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