Ben Carson: Rayshard Brooks shooting ‘not clear-cut’ like George Floyd’s
The HUD Secretary took his unpopular messages, including some that defended the president, to the Sunday morning talk shows
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson thinks Rayshard Brooks' death is not the same as George Floyd's. He said the circumstance is not precise.
Ben Carson doesn’t seem to think that Rayshard Brooks‘ death is the same as George Floyd‘s.
The Housing and Urban Development Secretary believes that a careful review of both cases will prove that the circumstances between both police-involved killings are different and that Brooks’ death is not as cut and dry as Floyd’s.
READ MORE: Rayshard Brooks: Atlanta police release bodycam footage of Wendy’s shooting
In an interview with Fox New‘s Chris Wallace, Carson said that there should not be objections to Floyd’s murder. He explains that while Floyd was killed unarmed and powerless to his situation, Brooks had a taser, which the former brain surgeon believes to be a deadly weapon.
Here’s Ben Carson defending Atlanta officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks on basis of “we don’t know what was in mind of the officer … this is not a clear-cut circumstance.” pic.twitter.com/wdyMKRb8AE
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 14, 2020
https://open.spotify.com/episode/71nhtCniY10lItS1qwhmlt
Carson further explained that the officers, Garrett Rolfe and Devin Brosnan, might not have had enough time to process whether the potential shock from Brooks’ taser would have been non-lethal.
“We don’t know what was in the mind of the officer when someone turns around and points a weapon at him. Is he absolutely sure that’s a non-lethal weapon? This is not a clear-cut circumstance,” Carson told Wallace.
Because his remarks were ostensibly in defense of the police, Carson’s statement received praise from officer sympathizers but got disavowed by Black Twitter.
As he should…
Ben Carson Defends Atlanta Police Officer Who Killed Rayshard Brooks on ‘Fox News Sunday’ https://t.co/8tOkCAgkDN
— Operation Mindcrime (@DexTom2020) June 14, 2020
@SecretaryCarson THANK YOU for speaking common sense! Your RIGHT, we need to stop being offended at everything that is said or every statue that is up, people need to grow up; everything has gotten over the top ridiculous! God help our President and country ??? #GodBlessAmerica
— GiveMeTheUglyTruthNotAPrettyLie❤️? (@IAmDeplorable70) June 14, 2020
He still received rebuke. One prominent voice, Roland Martin, told Carson to “shut the hell up! You’re a neurosurgeon.”
“I would say to Secretary Ben Carson, ‘shut the hell up, okay?’ You are a neurosurgeon and this is very basic, okay? You saw a scuffle there — you, as police officers, you should not be firing at someone who is running away. Michael Slager is in federal prison right now because of what he did to Walter Scott, and numerous examples as well.”
But, Carson won’t stop talking. In fact, in a different interview on Sunday with ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, he continued to stand by his boss’ actions, by basically telling the voters to stop being so sensitive when it comes to President Donald Trump.
“We need to move away from being offended by everything, of going through history and looking at everything, of renaming everything,” Carson says to after Stephanopoulos brought up how many believe that is disrespectful for the president to make a speech on the anniversary of “Ax Handle Saturday.”
“We need to move away from being offended by everything, of going through history and looking at everything, of renaming everything,” Carson says when asked if it’s appropriate for Trump to deliver convention speech on anniversary of “Ax Handle Saturday.” https://t.co/av1o0DGeWq pic.twitter.com/WvTW8AvtXz
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) June 14, 2020
READ MORE: Stacey Abrams: Atlanta cops should be held accountable for Rayshard Brooks’ death
Carson also said, “We’ve reached a point in our society where we dissect everything and try to ascribe some nefarious notion to it.”
It is set on Aug. 27, the 60th anniversary of “Ax Handle Saturday,” in Jacksonville, the day the Ku Klux Klan attacked Black civil rights protesters.
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