On Saturday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” FNC host and former police officer Dan Bongino stated that the death of Tyre Nichols wasn’t a training issue, it’s “a personnel issue. These guys are just bad guys.” And the officers failed to follow their duty to defend everyone’s rights and argued that “The process worked” because the officers were immediately terminated and will be charged.
Bongino said, “I waited to comment because I’m trying to find any legitimate, rational reason that the situation was handled the way it was. There’s been a lot of commentary on this about training and other things and I don’t get where that comes from. Do you think anyone was trained to do this? This isn’t a training issue, guys. … Nobody is trained to do this. This is not a training issue. This is a personnel issue. These guys are just bad guys. Who does this? Listen, guys, there is no attempt in this situation — and again, I’ve been there, I’ve done this, I’ve watched this video now probably ten times — there is no attempt at all, at any point in this scenario to de-escalate, none, zero.”
He added, “Listen, as conservatives and libertarians and as any sane, rational lover of this country, it is our duty no matter who we’re looking at in this video, a cop, a civilian, or anyone else to defend everyone’s God-given rights are God-given rights…I’m not really sure that these cops understood that with this guy.” And “A couple of other things here, and this is important, all the other police officers out there that I know are good and decent people, you know this and don’t ever forget this, we are not vigilantes. This isn’t freaking ‘Judge Dredd,’ okay. We are paid to do a job. We are that thin crust on a volcano, as that old adage goes, and we keep civilization — along with our military internationally — intact, okay? When those handcuffs are on or that subject stops resisting, that fight, damn it, it’s over, man. That fight is over. That is not your fight anymore. That’s not your fight anymore. It is for the judge and the judicial system and a jury or if he decides to plea and get a lawyer at that point, that is the purpose of a legal system. We are not animals. We are not savages. We don’t beat the living out of people to make a point. This isn’t a bar fight. We’re not bouncers. We’re professionals.”
Bongino further stated, “One more point here: The process worked. The process worked, guys. You had these officers immediately terminated. And the judicial system — which they disrespected by beating the crap out of this guy until he died — the judicial system they disrespected will now, ironically, handle them, these five men you see on the screen. Like anyone else, they’re entitled, however, to the presumption of innocence. They will have their say in court as well. However now they will be subjected to a jury of their peers, again, the same exact system they disrespected by enacting a death penalty themselves in this case.”
Later, Bongino argued that the unit that the officers were a part of should not be disbanded and that doing so would likely result in more crime.
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