Bill O’Reilly weighed in on the Ferguson protesters on his “Talking Points Memo” segment of The O’Reilly Factor , questioning the Missouri governor’s handling of the incident and condemning the looters who did hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to the town after the grand jury’s decision was announced.
In a Tuesday night visit to NBC’s The Tonight Show , O’Reilly had told host Jimmy Fallon that he understood the protests, but not the violence.
“You have the emotional thing where African-Americans — some of them, not all — feel that the justice system does not give them a fair shake,” O’Reilly said. “That’s a legitimate protest and I respect that because things don’t change in this country unless you protest. They don’t get better unless you protest … And that makes America vibrant, that if you don’t like something, protest it. But don’t burn down somebody’s store; somebody who’s worked their whole life to build.”
O’Reilly had harsher words for some of the the protesters on his own show that same evening, though, calling the looters criminals.
“The property loss was inexcusable if it could have been prevented. Most Americans despise these looters, who have dishonored the Brown family,” he said. “Then again, Michael Brown’s own stepfather was captured on tape soon after the decision was announced doing this.”
O’Reilly then showed a clip of Michael Brown’s father shouting “Burn this mother f***er down.”
“Extremely disturbing. Again, people who loot and burn after an 18-year-old American has been killed dishonored the man’s legacy. If you want to protest peacefully, fine. If you sincerely believe there is injustice in our system, let your feelings be known. But these looters could not care less about Michael Brown. They are criminals. That was obvious last night.”
O’Reilly also questioned why there was not proper protection from the National Guard for the innocent citizens of Ferguson and their property, knowing that a non-indictment would probably incite riots in the town.
“My question is where was the National Guard?” he asked. “Why were they not protecting the businesses in Ferguson? It’s a small town. Where was the guard?”
“The lack of proper protection by the National Guard put responders, firefighters, and police officers in physical jeopardy,” he added.
The Inquisitr reports that only 700 National Guard personnel were present at the time of the announcement, but that number was tripled to 2200 the next day.
O’Reilly concluded the segment by saying, “The whole case makes America look bad. There is nothing good about it. Last night’s exposition in Missouri was flat out disgraceful. Period.”
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