Sean Hannity interviewed Freddie Gray’s family attorney last night. And while Hannity insisted that it didn’t matter why Gray ran from the police the day he was taken into custody and died, Hannity just happened to keep harping on it anyway.
Hannity engaged in a lengthy, contentious exchange with Gray family attorney William “Billy” Murphy last night.
HANNITY: Why would somebody just see police and run? I don’t think it’s relevant to the case inasmuch as whatever happened from the time he was arrested, he should be treated with proper care and he should have been given the medical attention. But why did he run? Do you know why?
MURPHY: Because he didn’t want to have happen to him what happened to him. And that’s why a lot of black kids run. This is an object lesson in why running from the police is rational.
HANNITY (interrupting): Is it that, sir, or is it the fact that he had a prior criminal record? Does it have to do with his prior criminal record?
…Not every person and not every minority …runs from the police. …Now, he did have a record of dealing drugs, including marijuana and heroin.
MURPHY: …Running from the police is not a crime.
HANNITY: Most people don’t run from police for no reason.
Hannity was clearly suggesting that Gray was somehow culpable in his own death. But rather than leave it there, Hannity began whitesplaining to Murphy: “Here’s what I’ve learned being on radio and television all these years, is that you don’t rush to judgment.”
Well, except when he does. Here’s how Hannity didn’t rush to judgment in the Abner Louima case. From FAIR:
When Haitian immigrant Abner Louima accused New York City police officers of sodomizing and badly injuring him with a wooden rod in 1997, Hannity used his WABC show for a vicious counter-offensive targeting the victim.
The father of chief defendant Justin Volpe, an NYPD police officer, regularly appeared on show during the 1999 trial. And Hannity and various guests repeated rumors that Louima’s injuries resulted from a “gay sex act” and not from police brutality. Playing on the homosexual rumor and inconsistencies in Louima’s story, Hannity and his producer sang a parody of Lionel Richie’s song “Three Times a Lady,” changing the words to “you’re once, twice, three times a liar.” Hannity stopped referring to the victim as “Lying Louima” only after Volpe confessed to sodomizing Louima with the help of another officer (OnePeoplesProject.com).
Hannity “didn’t rush to judgment” in the Trayvon Martin case by accusing Attorney General Eric Holder of being too partial to him, by helping promote George Zimmerman’s defense fund and by conducting an hour-long, lapdog interview with Zimmerman in prime time, all before Zimmerman's trial.
Hannity cited the Zimmerman case as one he did not rush to judge.
Despite all that, Murphy did a great job handling Hannity’s blatant bias and it was a most entertaining exchange.
Watch it below, from last night’s Hannity.
Everyone is celebrating this new prosecutor’s decision to insist that Gray’s ultimately fatal injuries occurred in the van. Alas, she has largely destroyed her own ability to bring Gray’s actual killers to justice. Unless she finds a way to walk that back (not likely as she’s already filed charges, and the bike cops are not charged at all for injuring Gray), I think the quest for justice for Freddie Gray is FUBAR.
Sad.
I still haven’t heard from the Baltimore PD what Mr. Gray was arrested for and why they detained him in the first place.
Actually, the first thing I heard they stopped him for was to see if he had a “receipt” for the bicycle he was riding. That fell through when they realized how dumb it sounds asking if anyone has a “receipt” for a bicycle on them.
The State’s Attorney just announced that Freddie Gray was “murdered” and 6 officers involved are in a bit of trouble as a result.
I guess the same old tired excuses and arguments the cops were telling were not found to be compelling, to use your argument.
It also appears that the only one “crafting false narratives in vain attempts to cover up” there “dirty deeds” was the Baltimore PD. And you of course.
Yes, Freddie Gray had a previous history with Law Enforcement, but, what we don’t always hear from Fox News is that the Baltimore PD also has a previous history of having to pay out settlements for there abusive actions in the amount of 5.7 Million dollars.
That’s an awful lot of abuse by an organization who’s purpose in the community is to “Serve and Protect.”
Stop whining and crafting false narratives in vain attempts to cover up your dirty deeds.