O'Reilly: Five percent of S.F. police officers using excessive force "not so bad"
Bill O'Reilly said that the "5 to 7 percent" of San Francisco police officers alleged to have used excessive force do not constitute "a lot" of officers, adding, "I'm not sure what the big deal is out of that."
During the February 13 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly said that the "5 to 7 percent" of San Francisco police officers alleged in a recent series of news articles in the San Francisco Chronicle to have used excessive force do not constitute "a lot" of officers and stated further that "I'm not sure what the big deal is out of that." O'Reilly was responding to former San Francisco Board of Supervisors president Angela Alioto, whom he hosted along with San Francisco Police Officers Association president Gary Delagnes in order to discuss the Chronicle series about incidents of violence employed by the San Francisco Police Department, titled "The Use of Force."
From the February 13 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: But how pervasive is this?
ALIOTO: Five to 7 percent.
O'REILLY: This is what I'm trying to get at. Look, every police force has bad people on it. I mean, everybody knows that.
ALIOTO: My point --
O'REILLY: But if you have 100 officers out of 2,200, that's not a lot.
ALIOTO: No, but --
O'REILLY: I mean, that's less than 5 percent. And there's -- the Chronicle doesn't assert they did anything. All they say is that these guys -- and they could be, you know, in the worst neighborhoods, in the worst kind of stuff, narcotics, or whatever -- are responsible for a high rate of force violations. Look, you know -- you've been on the supervisors' board. You know what police work is. If you're down in the sewer and the gutter with these people, they're going to throw everything they can at you, particularly if you're good, if you're a good cop. They're going to try to get you.
ALIOTO: I not only know what police work is, my son, Joe, before he was police commissioner, was a San Francisco police officer at 19 years old.
O'REILLY: Right.
ALIOTO: I'm fully aware of that. But Bill, you surely are not suggesting that we just let the 100 be 100 and continue that kind of behavior?
O'REILLY: No. I'm not sure -- it's not many. And I'm not sure what the big deal is out of that. Most other police forces would say, "Gee, just 100? That's not so bad."
ALIOTO: No, but do something about the 100 who have excessive records.
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Zero.
Which is up to Fox standards.
Five percent of SF police officers using excessive force: "not a lot", "not so bad", and not so "pervasive".
Five percent of population "attacking Christmas": very, very, pervasive, and VERY bad.
Excellent!
Well said dave,
Nobody cherry picks their outrage quite like O'Reilly.
It probably is about 5% of the population that's engaging in a "war on Christmas". Not a problem.
had actually read the excellent Chronicle series he'd understand what a big deal this is! Personally, I don't understand how anyone could read the whole thing and not be deeply concerned. But then it wasn't Bull's sister, recovering from spine surgery, pushed to the ground while her brother was being beaten with a policeman's nightstick...
One can only hope that the 5-7% of NY police that use excessive force have a little time with Billy in the near future.
percent of SF policemen using excessive force is bad . . . he just figures that'd be enough to protect the city from that Al-Queda attack he called for - they could form a circle around Coit Tower to keep it from being blown up.
Considering Bill O'Reilly would prefer 100% of San Franciscans to be beaten up regularly by five-oh.
what percentage of SF cops are assaulted on a yearly basis?
5 to 7% of his brain, so that's not so bad. Slanthead only musters up 2 to 3%.
MM artical isn't telling the whole story. The question was whether the local newpaper in SF should be running seemingly anti-police pages. He never said " Those 100 cops should just be left alone to beat the living hell out of whoever looks their way" What he WAS saying was that it didn't warrent the media response as if ALL SF cops were using undue force. I myself ( Coming from a Police family) would like to see more stories about the 5 % that go above and beyond the call, but I guess that will never happen.
Note that it was O'Reilly who gave this story about bad cops national play. You should pitch your idea about focusing on the best cops to him; maybe he'll run with it (if he can figure out a way he can use it to slander "those on the left" and the ACLU). Course if he did that, he'd have less time to devote to the latest stories about child molesters, so you might be out of luck there.
Sure he did the segment, he is after all a news analyst. And as far as the child molestor stories, I say " keep up the good work". Having been a victim of that myself, and having my case hushed over and being made to feel like it was my fault I think it is time someone started worrying about the rights of the victims. Maybe if you had a child that had been brutallized and screwed up for life by some pervert......you'd understand his point of view a little bettter.
The use of excess force by even ONE police officer deserves media attention, for the implications and fallout are serious.
My son had the misfortune to be pulled over a few years ago by a police officer who yanked him from the car at gunpoint, forced him to the ground, put his foot on the kid's neck and ground his face into the mud. His offense? His clothing and his haircut didn't correspond with the car he was driving (his mother's) so he was obviously a car thief who deserved rough treatment.
The officer didn't even write him a ticket, probably because my son's friend (who was following in another car) alerted me to the situation and I was able to get there quickly. My outrage at what the officer did made him back off, but I shudder to think what might have happened had I not been able to get to the scene fast enough. Looking back at the incident now, I guess I was lucky he didn't take us all to jail for "resisting" or something.
So what's the fallout from this "insignificant" little incident? An abiding hatred and mistrust of law enforcement. All the years I spent teaching my son that "the police officer is your friend" were gone, wasted in a moment.
Reporting the abuses of those who are sworn to "protect and serve" is absolutely essential to a free society. Otherwise we are wasting our time teaching our children to respect and obey the law.
I know that the vast majority of police officers are not like this piece of human garbage who treated my son so badly, thank goodness. But there are enough of them out there to undermine badly their mission of law and order. I do not believe that 5-7% is insignificant.
Focusing on "feel good, aren't these officers wonderful" news stories will do nothing to restore the goodwill destroyed by the abusers. Unless the public is confident that abusers will be reported and dealt with appropriately, respect for law enforcement will be hard to come by.
Why does anyone care what he says?