The president of the New York state’s Police Benevolent Association said at a press conference Tuesday that police were being treated like “animals” in the media in the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody.
Mediaite reported that Mike O’Meara defended police and said the normal interaction with the community is “overwhelmingly positive.”
“Stop treating us like animals and thugs and start treating us with some respect … Our legislators abandoned us. The press is vilifying us. It’s disgusting,” he said.
WATCH ? New York police boss Mike O’Meara went off on the media today:
“Stop treating us like animals and thugs and start treating us with some respect … Our legislators abandoned us. The press is vilifying us. It’s disgusting.” pic.twitter.com/CXOPARKff7
— August Takala (@AugustTakala) June 9, 2020
FAKE NEWS! NYT STORY THAT BUSH ISN’T SUPPORTING TRUMP IS BOGUS
“We all read in the paper all week that in the black community, mothers are worried about their children getting home from school without being killed by a cop,” he said at a press conference in New York City. “What world are we living in? That doesn’t happen. It does not happen!”
Democrats across the country have called on dramatic police reforms since Floyd’s death on May 25. The calls range from stripping their immunity from facing legal ramifications while on the job, to defunding departments to the outright banishment of police in some cities.
BILL MURRAY SON ALLEGEDLY BIT, SPIT ON COP AFTER PROTEST
Lisa Bender, the president of the Minneapolis City Council, told CNN on Monday night that she thinks the “idea of having a police-free future is very aspirational.”
Even anchors at CNN seemed to question her theory. Earlier on Monday, she raised eyebrows after saying that calling the police while your home is being broken into comes from a “place of privilege.”
O’Meara told the press conference that “everybody’s trying to shame us.”
“Legislators. The press. Everybody’s trying to shame us into being embarrassed of our profession. You know what? This isn’t stained by someone in Minneapolis,” he said. Mediaite reported that he held up his badge and said, “It’s still got a shine on it, and so do theirs.”
Top Democrat leaders have seemed to separate themselves from the call to defund police departments that appear to be mainly coming from the party’s extreme left. Joe Biden, the likely nominee in 2020, also came out against defunding cops.
Donald Trump, Jr., said on Monday that any Democrat that wants to defund police should first cut their own security detail.
“We all want to stop police brutality, but cutting funding to police departments like so many Dems want to do doesn’t stop abuses, it just makes communities (particularly impoverished communities) less safe,” he tweeted. “Will those same anti-cop Dems call for their security details to be cut?”