The preposterous reasons Fox News hosts use to justify outrageous behavior by the police over recent brutal events was highlighted on Fox & Friends Monday, when Elisabeth Hasselbeck declared that the threat of Sandra Bland's lit cigarette was reason enough for her to be hauled off to jail because in the the history of the world - a lit cigarette must have been used to attack a policeman in the past. EMMIRTIE? I think those incidents have been well documented. Make it stop, please!
Of all the gas guzzling fools on TV, Hasselbeck takes the cake with this justification for the death of Sandra Bland.
HASSELBECK: It's tense to watch. Where would you say he went over the line, if at all?
RAFFERTY: Well, his own deployment obviously put him on administrative duty. They've already recognized he stepped over the line. When you take somebody out of the car it has to be that you have to feel your personal safety is in danger. It appears, obviously, he took this too personal. When she didn't put out the cigarette, now all of a sudden you're taking her out of the car. These, these cameras that the officers are wearing -- you live and die by what you say with this. It appears, looking at this, because she didn't put out the cigarette next thing he knows, he's asking the person to step out of the vehicle. You can't take it personal. It's the job.
HASSELBECK: But, what if, I mean, there are times, I'm sure, someone has, in the history of this land, used a cigarette against a police officer, maybe chucked it at him, pushed it at him.
RAFFERTY: Absolutely.
HASSELBECK: If he indeed felt it could be a potential threat, was that the wise thing to do?
RAFFERTY: I think because you know, you have to know you're being recorded -- you have to say, "Listen I need you to step out to sign this warning." I wouldn't want somebody stepping out with a cigarette. I mean, I've had a cigarette tried to be -- I've had somebody try to put a cigarette out on me. It happens. I guarantee, you speak to many cops out there. But the way you say it, unfortunately you're locked into it. Because now, it's being recorded. Unfortunately, these officers have to remember that.
I could see a policeman would be upset if Sandra Bland grabbed the police officer around the neck and took her cigarette and repeatedly scalded him in the face with it as a reason to arrest her, but I doubt that's what EH meant.
