Things got tense on CNN Monday afternoon when a former federal law enforcement official clashed with a Black Lives Matter activist over the issue of inflammatory, anti-police rhetoric.
“For too long, we have lived in a society that has poured resources, too many resources, into a policing system that creates an unsafe situation, especially in black communities,” Black Lives Matter organizer Melina Abdullah said. She said the United States allows for the state-sanctioned murder and persecution of African-Americans.
The BLM movement has come under fire recently for some of its participants’ heated, anti-police rhetoric, including when activists in September were recorded at a demonstration in St. Paul, Minn., chanting, “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon!”
These and similar chants were caught on tape even as police departments in the United States mourned the death of six law enforcement agents who were shot and killed in the line of duty in August.
For CNN contributor and former Drug Enforcement Administration agent David Katz, BLM is directly responsible for promoting violent and sometimes deadly anti-police sentiment.
“Are you listening to me?” he asked after repeating some of the chants now associated with BLM, including one where participants chants, “What do we want? Dead cops. When do we want them? Now.”
“Are you listening?” he repeated.
Abdullah rejected his claim that the Black Lives Matter banner is synonymous with anti-police sentiment.
“Our primary chant is ‘black lives matter,'” she said. “They matter here. And black lives should matter. Black lives should matter everywhere. It’s unfortunate that police don’t seem to see that.”
“Everyone’s lives matter, ma’am,” Katz interjected.
She responded, “If you think everyone’s lives matter, then you should have absolutely no problem saying, ‘black lives matter.'”
The two then proceeded to speak over one another angrily until CNN’s Brooke Baldwin broke in to demand that that her guests be “polite.”
