Remember when Megyn Kelly demanded that the family of African American Freddie Gray accept the decision of the Maryland prosecutor in advance? Apparently, that was just too the-police-could-be-exonerated ago for Kelly to hold herself to the same standard.
Last week, Kelly condescendingly lectured (African American) Gray family attorney Jason Downs about the need to “trust in the system and the folks running it”:
KELLY (interrupting) But you’re not saying that you’ll accept (a decision not to prosecute). OK, I understand. You’re not saying that you’ll accept it. That’s tough, I mean that’s tough. You really have the opportunity now before you get the results to say you’ll accept it either way. Either you trust in the system and the folks running it or you don’t. That’s the way either you do or you don’t. They’ve told you what the process is.
…You’re leaving yourself wiggle room to challenge it if you don’t like the result which will undermine your protest if you do wind up having to make one, sir. I mean, that’s just the way it is.
But Kelly sings quite a different tune now that six officers have been charged over Gray's death. Rather than wait until trial, Kelly and two (white) guests attacked the (African American) prosecutor’s decision. “The irony is she’s charging them (the police) with false imprisonment for making an arrest that had no basis in her view," Kelly said to her guest, attorney Mark Eiglarsh. "Isn’t there a good argument she just did the same thing to them? Shouldn’t she be charged with false imprisonment if that’s the standard?”
Then, with her next guest, Shannen Coffin, former counsel to Dick Cheney, Kelly complained about the Department of Justice investigating the Baltimore police.
Kelly didn’t weigh the pros or cons or even discuss the standards for a DOJ investigation for the “we report, you decide” network’s viewers. Instead, she jumped right to condemning the move by innuendo.
For example, Kelly sneered sarcastically, “I’m shocked, I’m shocked that the Department of Justice is going to step into this case. Are you?”
Yet, even Kelly has acknowledged that Baltimore has paid out millions in excessive force cases.
Kelly also said, “I would suggest to you, Shannen, having covered a number of these cases in the past couple of years, the request probably came the other way and then she (the Baltimore mayor) came out and said publicly, ‘Yes, I’d love for them to get involved. Would you please?'”
Oh, was Kelly referring to her discredited racial attacks on former Attorney General Eric Holder? Or just her obsessive animosity toward him?
Kelly never cited any cases she “covered” or what facts she knew of.
Regardless, what is wrong with a Department of Justice investigating a police force with a history of abuse? Or is the DOJ not supposed to concern itself with African Americans who feel preyed upon and abused?
Meanwhile, Kelly moved on to suggest that the DOJ's move was part of some big (racial) power grab:
KELLY: Barack Obama’s been very clear about, you know, he has this task force that basically wants to control local law enforcement. The problem is, that’s not really how the country was set up.
…You had the mayor going out there and saying, “I want the DOJ to investigate whether we have a racist police department.” She’s an African American, her police commissioner’s an African American, her police force is majority minority, three of the six cops who were arrested in this case were African American and even in these circumstances, we need a federal investigation into whether this is a racist police department. If it can happen in Baltimore, it can happen anywhere. Anywhere!
Watch it below from last night’s The Kelly File.