Christie on Ferguson: Let’s not pre-judge
In response to a question from a member of the public, Governor Chris Christie addressed the situation in Ferguson,MO this afternoon at his Town Hall Meeting in Long Branch.
The following is a video of his response and a transcript, both released by his office.
Governor Christie: None of us quite know yet exactly what happened in Ferguson and what happened to this young man who was killed. And I spent seven years in law enforcement as the chief federal prosecutor in this state and what I learned during that period of time, among other things, was that what you read in the newspapers and what you see on TV is almost always just a fraction of the story. And so, I’ve been urging people to not pre-judge anything here. We have a really good justice system in this country, is it perfect? No, but it’s really good. And, in fact, there’s no better justice system in the world than the justice system we have in dealing with folks who are accused of crimes in this country. And so first, I’d say, you know, let’s give the justice system an opportunity to play itself out before we make any kind of broad judgments. Secondly, I’m really concerned about the generalizations that we’re then making about police officers. The fact is, that the overwhelming majority of police officers in this country are hardworking men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect us from bad people, violent people, people who mean ill to us. So when something like this happens like its happened in Ferguson, people already jump to conclusions not only about what happened in Ferguson but also how does that apply to every other police force across the country.
There will be plenty of time for us to examine this and to learn lessons from Ferguson as all the facts come out, not just when the TV anchor people are sitting there making a spectacle of this. But when the prosecutors and the investigators both from the federal government and from the local authorities do a complete investigation and I’m confident that if there is someone who needs to be charged with a crime here or more than one person, they will be. And if they are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt they will be convicted by a jury of their peers and will be sent to jail by a judge. If that’s what’s appropriate, that’s what should be done. But I just don’t believe we should drawing any generalizations or conclusions yet from what we know after just about ten days of this. We’re going to learn a lot more over the period of time that’s going to come and then I think we should have an intelligent conversation about whether anything that happened out there is something we need to learn from and apply here in New Jersey. But until we know all the facts, politicians who jump out now and public figures who jump out now and start saying a lot of things, they’re just trying to get their name in the newspaper. I don’t think that’s the way you should do it. So I’d be reluctant to say anything more than that just because I know I don’t know enough. I used to say all the time when I was the U.S. Attorney, privately to our staff like I hear a politician make some comment about a case they thought we were working on or whatever and I’d say you know I hate when these guys who don’t know anything, act like they know everything. Now that I’m in public office, I don’t want to be guilty of the same thing I used to criticize them for. So until I know more, I think I’m going to give the police the benefit of doubt here in New Jersey and as for Missouri, let’s let those guys work it out and then let’s learn whatever lessons we need to learn from what happened when we have all the facts. Last thing we should say is this, no matter what happened, those parents have to be in our prayers. They lost their son and no matter what the circumstances were of the death of a child, I can tell you as a parent, it is unthinkable. Unthinkable that one of your children would die before you. And the sorrow and the pain that his parents must feel right now is indescribable. So one of the things that I’ve been doing and I hope everybody else does is if you take a moment to reflect, if you take a moment to pray, think about those parents because I’m sure that their lives right now are just absolutely in tatters and I wonder how you put one foot in front of the other every day after you get a phone call like that learning that one of your children has passed away. So I think about that too. I think we all should.
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The first line of the comments above says it all. And Matt Walsh has a good line on it as well.
http://themattwalshblog.com/2014/08/18/dont-know-happened-michael-brown-stop-pretending/
IMHO, what is important now is that the media, race baiters and other interlopers stop. JUST STOP and let more info come out.
@ JIm In your book its ok to kill young black man?
Here we go again with an anonymous coward inferring something I did not say.
The real question is why don’t you have the balls to ask that of the Governor? He said basically the same thing, and Matt Walsh said the same thing
But you won’t because all you are intent on is personally demonizing me. Just how sad is your life that the only way you can have value and make yourself feel better is by attempting to demonize someone else?
Beyond that, there is no need to respond to a comment such as that from a moron. But let me propose that you have the cohones to ask such a question with your name attached to it and I’ll answer you.
But I warn you, the answer would TOTALLY crush your insipid comment.
Secondly, I’m really concerned about the generalizations that we’re then making about police officers. The fact is, that the overwhelming majority of police officers in this country are hardworking men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect us from bad people, violent people, people who mean ill to us.
The correct question to ask is what is an “overwhelming majority”. The “overwhelming majority” of catholic priests are good, honest men practicing their faith; a very, very small number of them are awful pedophiles. Yet the “generalization” is to assume that all Catholic priests are pedophiles because any single one could indeed be a pedophile and there is little reason to think that the other priests would do right and turn their fellow priests in to law enforcement. The same applies to law enforcement, very few are actually “bad people”, but history has given the general public reason to believe that all are bad people because any one could be a bad person, and there is little reason to think that the other officers will do right and turn on their own. This generalization holds and repeats for politicians, lawyers, the cable tv repairman and so on. The public turned on Catholic priests years ago, it’s only a matter of time (maybe now) before the public turns on the other groups.
68.83.1.82 from Eatontown
I know you’re a frequent participant here under several handles. Lately, and tonight in particular, you’ve crossed WAY OVER the line.
Reel it in or be banned.
Does anyone notice a pattern here? First there was Tawana Brawley. Huge protests, turned out to be a hoax. Then there was the Duke lacrosse team rape case. Huge protests, another hoax. Then Tray von Martin. Huge protests. Turns out that Martin was smashing Zimmerman ‘ s head into the concrete when he was shot Again they were wrong. Now what if the cop’s version in the Michael Brown case turns out to be the truth? Who is going to pay for the damage to property and reputations? Will Sharpton and Jackson be let off the hook yet again?
PR, the pattern I notice is that poor people riot, rich people get TV time and profit from the poor people and the middle class guy who is just trying to run some retail business to get by suffers looting, vandalism, theft, assault, etc.
I fear that the bigger problem we all face is that as more and more people join the unemployment list, or the under employed list, and as American’s wealth and savings are drained and the youth of the nation who have no notable savings or equity/investments get older, there will be more people with nothing to lose and nothing better to do than stay up all night rioting or committing other crimes, with or without a “reason”. Unless the economy swings in a much better direction and major policy changes are put into effect today, I do fear that the next generation (those 18-30 now) of adults will face rather grim career and life prospects; people with no hope and nothing to live for are dangerous.
With the riots distracting the nation from the border crisis, the rate of growth of the poor population and the drain on American’s worth is happening at an accelerated pace and the Obama administration’s economic and foreign policies, including his immigration policy, are unsustainable, and again, dangerous.
Now this is interesting, the White House may send Obama to Ferguson.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/08/breaking-white-house-may-send-obama-to-ferguson/
First, beyond the ridiculousness of the statement in that Obama is the President and should be deciding to go or not go; the following quote shows the hypocrisy of the modern Democrat Party.
“For now, the White House believes a trip by Obama to Ferguson would do more harm than good, by diverting resources on the ground at a pivotal time for law enforcement.”
Ah, excuse me? Wasn’t this the same reason for Bush not visiting after Katrina; and was pounded mercilessly for by the media?
BTW, why isn’t Holder staying in Washington to deal with this?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/19/race-based-hate-crimes-spike-in-dc/
Oh, wait. SNAP.
If this turns out to be true, will the community apologize?
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/08/20/missouri-cop-was-badly-beaten-before-shooting-michael-brown-says-source/
Is it ok to beat a policeman to within an inch of his life?
Good question. I have a feeling that this will probably turn out to be true. Broken eye orbits are hard to fake. Will those idiots in the NFL apologize for their stupid hands up gesture? Will that limp-wristed, pathetic excuse for a governor apologize for promising to vigorously prosecute that police officer? And what about Sharpton and Jackson? Will the storeowners be able to sue those two dunces for inciting the violence that took their livelihood? What is wrong with the black community that they would support a thug who was caught on film robbing and roughing up a storeowner and then going out, it appears, and severely beating a police officer? Do they just want criminals to be left alone? Is that what these protests are about? Why not just pull all the cops out of these neighborhoods and let the chips fall where they may.