Sen. John Kennedy told anti-police activists to “call a meth head” the next time they are in trouble and need assistance.
“I’ve said it before: If you hate cops just because they’re cops, then feel free to call a criminal, call a meth head the next time you get in trouble,” Kennedy told Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Monday.
“I just do not accept, nor do I think most Americans accept, that most cops are bad people or racist,” he continued. “They don’t get up every day, go in to work hoping they can hurt somebody. Most of them get up every day and go to work and hope they can themselves come back home alive.”
Kennedy argued during his interview that out of officers’ roughly “60 million encounters with Americans every year,” the majority of situations are handled without issue.
BLACK PEOPLE OVERWHELMINGLY SUPPORT LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENTS: POLL
“No. 1: Most cops, many of whom happen to be black, do not get up every day and go to work hoping for the opportunity to hurt a person of color,” the senator said.
“No. 2: Cops are necessary,” he argued. “If you support defunding the police, you have tested positive for stupid.”
“No. 3: It is immeasurably foolish to resist arrest,” Kennedy continued. “It is going to end badly, even if no one is hurt.”
Kennedy’s comments come amid a rising anti-police climate across the nation after recent shootings of black people by police and high-profile public figures demanding that law enforcement officers be held accountable.
NBA star LeBron James was hit with accusations of inciting violence last week after he posted a tweet of the Ohio police officer who shot Ma’Khia Bryant, who charged at two people with a knife, with the caption, “YOU’RE NEXT #ACCOUNTABILITY.”
He later deleted the tweet, saying that it was “being used to create more hate.”
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“I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police. I took the tweet down because its being used to create more hate — This isn’t about one officer. it’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY,” he said in a follow-up tweet.
Recent polling shows that despite calls from the Black Lives Matter movement and celebrities for policing reform, 70% of black people say law enforcement officers are doing a “very good” or “somewhat good” job.
