Appearing as a guest on Tuesday's CNN Tonight, liberal CNN political commentator Marc Lamont Hill declared that police officers have a "white supremacist anxiety about black bodies that makes everybody seem like a threat" as he and CNN law enforcement analyst Harry Houck had their latest debate about police interaction with black criminal suspects.
After Houck recalled that police officers very much do not want to have to use their guns against criminal suspects, and then complained about liberal anti-police activists not devoting the same attention to black on black crime in places like Chicago, Hill, a Morehouse College professor, began his response:
Couple of things. Harry says no one talks, he said they don't talk about it. I'm not sure who "they" is, but I was in Chicago last week dealing with Chicago violence. I've been in Chicago 10 times in the last 14 months dealing with this. There are people on the ground in Chicago every single day doing violence interruption. There are people on the ground every day doing conflict resolution.
The liberal commentator continued:
So it's just not true to say people aren't addressing it. The protests and the marches look different for black on black violence and gang violence than they do for police because I have an expectation that police won't murder me. I don't have the same trust of the Bloods and the Crips. So it's a slightly different circumstance here.
Hill introduced the words "white supremacist" into the discussion as he added:
Harry says that police officers don't get up and say, "I'm going to shoot somebody." I don't doubt that. I think that they oftentimes feel that there is a visible threat. The problem is, there is a white supremacist anxiety about black bodies that makes everybody seem like a threat, even if they're not holding a weapon. And, yes, some officers-
An angry Houck responded:
That's a load, Marc. That is a load, and you know it. You have no proof to that at all.
Hill accused Houck of "lying," and Houck mocked Stanford as a "bunch of liberal academics" as the two went back and forth:
MARC LAMONT HILL: Hold on, but he's lying on national television. There is a Stanford study that shows this. There are multiple studies that show this. If you look at the data, you'll see you're not true
HARRY HOUCK: Oh, Stanford, whoa, Stanford, that's somebody that we can believe, a bunch of liberal academics.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Tuesday, November 3, CNN Tonight:
10:53 pm.
HARRY HOUCK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: This fact police officers can't shoot somebody because they're not armed is not true. A police officer can shoot somebody that isn't armed if the police officer feels his life is in danger. And these police officers have been exonerated. And we have other officers like in Baltimore which are going to trial, and then we have the officer in north Charleston that shot somebody in the back. That was a bad incident, and that officer will pay for what he did, okay? But the fact is, the main problem in Chicago is the black on black crime. You don't see them talking about that at all. Some little child just got shot the other day in Chicago, I think was nine years old.
DON LEMON: We're going to talk about that now.
HOUCK: Nobody is talking about that.
LEMON: We're going to talk about that, but I need you to respond, Marc, and then we're going to move on and talk about this nine-year-old boy. Go ahead.
MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Couple of things. Harry says no one talks, he said they don't talk about it. I'm not sure who "they" is, but I was in Chicago last week dealing with Chicago violence. I've been in Chicago 10 times in the last 14 months dealing with this. There are people on the ground in Chicago every single day doing violence interruption. There are people on the ground every day doing conflict resolution.So it's just not true to say people aren't addressing it. The protests and the marches look different for black on black violence and gang violence than they do for police because I have an expectation that police won't murder me. I don't have the same trust of the Bloods and the Crips. So it's a slightly different circumstance here.
Harry says that police officers don't get up and say, "I'm going to shoot somebody." I don't doubt that. I think that they oftentimes feel that there is a visible threat. The problem is, there is a white supremacist anxiety about black bodies that makes everybody seem like a threat, even if they're not holding a weapon. And, yes, some officers-HOUCK: That's a load, Marc. That is a load, and you know it. You have no proof to that at all.
LEMON: Okay, let's move, Marc, let's move on. Marc, I have less than-
HILL: Hold on, but he's lying on national television. There is a Stanford study that shows this. There are multiple studies that show this. If you look at the data, you'll see you're not true.
HOUCK: Oh, Stanford, whoa, Stanford, that's somebody that we can believe, a bunch of liberal academics.
