Predictably, some in the media sprinted to their corners minutes after news broke on Sunday that multiple Baton Rouge, Louisiana police officers had been shot dead with an MSNBC guest lashing out at “maniacs running around our country saying crazy things” concerning President Barack Obama and not individuals committing such atrocities but the guns they’re able to use to carry them out.
Former NYPD officer Eugene O’Donnell was speaking to MSNBC’s chief legal correspondent Ari Melber on the phone when he properly noted that “more than ever, we need to try to see past this lunacy, and still protect the community that overwhelming trusts and needs them.”
From there, however, he backed away from his own promise that “the danger here” in these situation “is this hardens people’s hearts” to lament that protecting all Americans has become difficult not due to the ideology of criminals or terrorists but guns and people saying “crazy things” about the President:
This not about individuals...So, we have an agency that protects the office of the President. Rightfully so. You can imagine the many maniacs running around our country saying crazy things about him every day and the gun culture has to be addressed. A lot of aggrieved people in our country. A lot of aggrieved people in other western counties. The difference in our country is if you’re aggrieved, it’s seems you have a readied accessibility to some very sophisticated firearms at a moment's notice.
Before Melber intervened to direct the discussion back to the shooting and the crime scene, O’Donnell lamented the lack of gun control causing “the atrocity of the week, fueled by people out of their minds, who are able to get their hands on firearms.”
The relevant portion of the transcript from the 12:00 p.m. Eastern hour of MSNBC Live on July 17 can be found below.
MSNBC Live
July 17, 2016
12:20 p.m. EasternARI MELBER: I want to bring back in former NYPD officer, Eugene O'Donnell. Your thoughts if were you able to hear some of the newest information, according to Representative James and your thoughts on what we know at this point?
EUGENE O’DONNELL: Well, the danger here is this hardens people's hearts, especially in the police business. Now more than ever, we need to try to see past this lunacy, and still protect the community that overwhelming trusts and needs them. We don't want to have no-go areas. At the same time now, we need a national conversation about protecting the office of the police officers. We protect various federal officials. We had a congresswoman shot. This not about individuals. It's the people in the office can't do their job, they can't protect themselves, they can’t protect people. So, we have an agency that protects the office of the President. Rightfully so. You can imagine the many maniacs running around our country saying crazy things about him every day and the gun culture has to be addressed. A lot of aggrieved people in our country. A lot of aggrieved people in other western counties. The difference in our country is if you’re aggrieved, it’s seems you have a readied accessibility to some very sophisticated firearms at a moment's notice. So once again, we have the atrocity of the week, fueled by people out of their minds, who are able to get their hands on firearms.
