Talk show host Joe Scarborough said he wanted to have a conversation about race and the role of police, and quickly got impassioned on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" as he defended policing practices that addressed crime where it was most likely to take place.
Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, said police should follow data and "should be looking at who is most likely" to commit a crime, adding it was the job of law enforcement to protect neighborhoods, not ponder ideology over racial issues.
"The job is to protect the people in that neighborhood. It is not to make a statement that makes prime time people on MSNBC feel better about America.
"It's about protecting black people in the neighborhood, Hispanics in the neighborhood, white people in the neighborhood. A cop on the street does not sit back, and they cannot sit up in their tower and be philosopher kings. They're trying to stop the next crime. They're trying to stop the next rape. They're trying to stop the next robbery," Scarborough said Wednesday.
The show's debate centered on racial tensions between minorities and police in the wake of the shooting of black youth Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. Violence erupted last week in Ferguson after a grand jury failed to indict Wilson for Brown's death, and protests have taken place across the country over the incident.
Scarborough blasted protesters who suggested "white cops just want to shoot black young youth in the back," adding the job of police was not to be concerned with liberal ideas about race.
"I don't care how that makes you feel in your liberal household in Westchester County. I want black families and Hispanic families and white families in the South Bronx, in parts of Brooklyn, and in Ferguson, I want them safe.
"I don't want their houses burned to the ground. I don't want their businesses burned to the ground. And, I, frankly, don't give a damn whether you feel good about how they do it or not. I want these people safe in their homes. I want grandmothers safe in their homes. I want children safe as they're walking to school," he said.
People were "afraid" to have a "real conversation about race," Scarborough said, adding society wouldn't "move the ball forward" on racial issues without "some uncomfortable conversations" about the subject.
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