MSNBC host Ed Schultz on Wednesday reacted to the findings of a federal report on the Ferguson, Mo., police force by saying that officers in the community should be unarmed and only allowed to carry nightsticks.
The report, drafted by the Department of Justice, indicated that the police force in Ferguson, Mo., has demonstrated a pattern of unfairly and disproportionately persecuting minorities. It resulted in the city’s police chief resigning.
“What we have to see is if the police stop killing unarmed black men,” said MSNBC contributor Michael Eric Dyson, a professor at Georgetown University. “That’s the proof in the pudding, not simply economic opportunity but they [blacks] have got to stop being murdered unfairly.”
“What about disarming the police?” Schultz replied. “What about just having them carry nightsticks and the authority to arrest? It would take a brave person to do something like that. But there are places on the face of this earth where there are police officers that don’t carry firearms. I know the right wing’s gonna think I’m crazy for saying that but if you really want change, you have to institutionally show it to the people that you want to do this.”
Ferguson is still reeling in the aftermath of 18-year-old Michael Brown being shot dead while unarmed by a white police officer named Darren Wilson in 2014. Wilson claimed he acted in self-defense and a grand jury declined to charge him with a crime. The justice department’s report also said there was no evidence that Wilson acted unlawfully.
