Late Tuesday afternoon on Deadline: White House, MSNBC host host Nicolle Wallace teed up far-left charlatan, journalism professor, and MSNBC contributor Jason Johnson to double down on his latest cri de coeur that not only should police be defunded, but they should be abolished entirely (and ostensibly leave the public open to attacks from criminals without consequences). And for anyone who disagrees with him, he accused them of gaslighting.
This came less than a day after Johnson told The 11th Hour's Brian Williams that not only should police be unarmed for traffic stops, but police are just as dangerous and deadly as a violent home intruder.
Wallace led Johnson by reading a joint statement from the Obamas that said the combination of the Derrick Chauvin trial and death of Daunte Wright "indicates not just how important it is to conduct a full and transparent investigation, but also just how badly we need to reimagine policing and public safety in this country.”
Johnson began by taking the opportunity to vindicate himself, reiterate his stance about how police shouldn't exist, and disingenuously claimed police departments writ large can't be changed or even criticized: "I’ve been saying we need to abolish American policing as it currently exists. It doesn't work and we don't seem to have this difficulty when we're talking about any other government agency."
In the real world, the popular suggestion to improve underperforming government agencies to give them more money.
But, in Johnson's classroom, it's a different story where Baltimore City Public Schools are successful and the inability to solve violent crimes are entirely the fault of police (and likely a racist refusal to solve crimes where African-Americans are the victims) (click "expand"):
I teach my class at Morehead State before this, we were having this discussion with a bunch of 19-20 year-olds and I pointed out to them, what is the graduation rate for high school kids in Baltimore? And the Baltimore graduation rate is only about 80 percent. People are always screaming, “my gosh, Baltimore public schools are terrible. They need to be taken over by the state, they need to be taken over by the government.” Only 80 percent of these kids graduate.
You know the average homicides that are solved by police departments? Only about 35 percent. You know the number of rapes and sexual assaults that are solved by police departments? You know, less than 60 percent. You know the percentage likelihood of being shot unarmed as a black person is, like, five times as likely than a white person? Policing doesn't work the way we’re doing it right now. And if we had that level of endemic failure in any other government agency, every politician in America would say not just reimagine, we need to tear this down to the studs and rebuild it..
Take not of how Johnson never provided suggestions to improve those crime solving statistics or explained why police departments are to blame for not being able to solve cases due to the lack of evidence or a fear from witnesses being seen as snitches.
Nonetheless, Johnson alleged that "anything less than that is -- is absolute gaslighting" and flaunted his insistence that there would be a police-involved shooting during the Derek Chauvin trial.
He concluded with more divisive rhetoric aimed to make Americans hate each other (and especially police officers): "So, we need to start thinking of a different way to approach policing. And if we don't have that conversation, then no one cares about crying tears and no one cares about blood in the streets, because anything else is just window dressing."
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Here is the relevant transcript:
MSNBC's Deadline: White House
April 13, 2021
4:08 p.m. EasternNICOLLE WALLACE: Jason, I -- I read your Twitter feed, and I’m going to let you hold forth, but let me just put out there for our viewers, a statement from the President and Mrs. Obama -- they put this out today: “Our hearts are heavy over yet another shooting of a black man, Daunte Wright, at the hands of police, the fact this could happen, even as the city of Minneapolis is going through the trial of Derek Chauvin and reliving the heart-wrenching murder of George Floyd indicates not just how important it is to conduct a full and transparent investigation, but also just how badly we need to reimagine policing and public safety in this country.” Jason?
JASON JOHNSON: I’ve been saying we need to abolish American policing as it currently exists. It doesn't work and we don't seem to have this difficulty when we're talking about any other government agency. So, Nicolle, you know, I teach my class at Morehead State before this, we were having this discussion with a bunch of 19-20 year-olds and I pointed out to them, what is the graduation rate for high school kids in Baltimore? And the Baltimore graduation rate is only about 80 percent. People are always screaming, “my gosh, Baltimore public schools are terrible. They need to be taken over by the state, they need to be taken over by the government.” Only 80 percent of these kids graduate. You know the average homicides that are solved by police departments? Only about 35 percent. You know the number of rapes and sexual assaults that are solved by police departments? You know, less than 60 percent. You know the percentage likelihood of being shot unarmed as a black person is, like, five times as likely than a white person? Policing doesn't work the way we’re doing it right now. And if we had that level of endemic failure in any other government agency, every politician in America would say not just reimagine, we need to tear this down to the studs and rebuild it. And anything less than that is -- is absolute gaslighting to the tears that this woman was expressing. I am tired of people saying, “this is a tragedy.” We've known it was a tragedy, and no one is doing anything about it. And whether it's a mass shooting in a public school or another black man or another black woman, and -- and I promise you, Nicolle, before this trial is over -- I said this when the Derrick Chauvin trial began. I was like we're going to have another shooting before this trial is over, and we have one. If the trial goes another two weeks, we'll have another shooting. So, we need to start thinking of a different way to approach policing. And if we don't have that conversation, then no one cares about crying tears and no one cares about blood in the streets, because anything else is just window dressing.
