Appearing on Tuesday's CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin, CNN Law Enforcement Analyst Harry Houck railed against Democratic management of the inner cities of Chicago. After declaring that "I am sick and tired of seeing small children, black children being killed," he tore into the city's mayor and former Obama advisor Rahm Emanuel for blaming the police superintendent for the city's problems, recommending that the Democratic mayor be impeached.
Near the end of the segment, as he debated fellow guest, Chicago resident and NAACP activist Stephen Green, Houck seemed to hit host Brooke Baldwin's political correctness button as she admonished him for declaring that "you people" in Chicago should try voting in a Republican mayor into office.
HARRY HOUCK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Maybe, you know, I'm just tired of the police getting the brunt of everything that's going on inside the inner city of Chicago. You people in, who live
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: No, no, it's not "you people"-
STEPHEN GREEN, NAACP: You people? You people?
BALDWIN: -Harry Houck, come on.
HOUCK: -in Chicago, all right, the people who live in Chicago should start voting for maybe another person, maybe a Republican, see how he, a Republican can come in there and straighten that city up.
Earlier in the segment, Houck had gone after Mayor Emanuel as he gave his prescription for solving the city's problems:
Look, I'm not a fan of Garry McCarthy at all, but the fact that he is being fired because of Rahm Emanuel's policies -- and believe me, every time that I see him on with the mayor, he's acquiescent to what the mayor wants. You know, these mayors get elected, and all of a sudden, they think they know how to police the inner city. They don't, all right?
We had a nine-year-old that was killed by thugs, he was assassinated, all right? When is enough enough for the people of Chicago? I am sick and tired of seeing small children, black children being killed, assassinated on the street. They can't go outside and play, all right, and you got a mayor sitting here, all right, saying that it's the police commissioner's fault when it's the mayor's fault. This mayor should be impeached. He should resign. The National Guard should go into Chicago, take that city back from the thugs, all right, let people be able to come out and play on the street again.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Tuesday, December 1, CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin from 2:05 p.m.:
BROOKE BALDWIN: Harry Houck, your response to the fact that now we know, I mean, we've seen Garry McCarthy being incredibly emotional over a lot of shootings that we've covered in Chicago. He's obviously the face of the police department as the top cop. But now that we know he's out, what now?
HARRY HOUCK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Look, I'm not a fan of Garry McCarthy at all, but the fact that he is being fired because of Rahm Emanuel's policies -- and believe me, every time that I see him on with the mayor, he's acquiescent to what the mayor wants. You know, these mayors get elected, and all of a sudden, they think they know how to police the inner city. They don't, all right?We had a nine-year-old that was killed by thugs, he was assassinated, all right? When is enough enough for the people of Chicago? I am sick and tired of seeing small children, black children being killed, assassinated on the street. They can't go outside and play, all right, and you got a mayor sitting here, all right, saying that it's the police commissioner's fault when it's the mayor's fault. This mayor should be impeached. He should resign. The National Guard should go into Chicago, take that city back from the thugs, all right, let people be able to come out and play on the street again.
BALDWIN: Stephen, to you, I don't know if you listened to that news conference today with Rahm Emanuel, but, you know, those reporters, they were asking some pretty tough questions obviously not just about the eroded trust, you know, the city police department, but also as Harry points out, with the mayor's office as well. And I'm wondering, and really the question and someone will ultimately need to get to the bottom of this because there was a reelection for Rahm Emanuel this past spring is: Could there possibly have been a political coverup?
STEPHEN GREEN, NAACP: And we believe that. We are intentional about finding the true answers here. If it was a coverup, why did it take so long? These are some questions that we are in Chicago asking and really seeking the Justice Department to come in and do a complete top down investigation into the overall pattern and practices of the Chicago Police Department. This isn't new. When you have a police department that has its own domestic Guantanamo Bay. We have neglect on the South Side of Chicago when you have cases that go unheard as it relates to young and black children and queer and transgender voices. We have a problem in the city of Chicago, and we need complete overall reform, so we're asking and seeking and demanding-
BALDWIN: Stephen?
GREEN: Yes.
BALDWIN: Specifically on what Harry said about calling for an impeachment of the mayor. Can you respond to that?
GREEN: We're not going to get into the semantics. We're asking for-
BALDWIN: Do you agree with that?
GREEN: I'm not-
HOUCK: Because he's a Democrat. That's why he won't-
GREEN: I'm a Democrat, too.
HOUCK: -why you won't call for his resignation.
GREEN: I don't appreciate that.
HOUCK: But it's true.
GREEN: I'm calling for a complete -- you can call for a resignation of the mayor and then get someone else that looks just like him and that has the same (INAUDIBLE)
HOUCK: Then do it.
GREEN: We're not asking for different dances.
HOUCK: Aren't you tired of dead black children on the streets of Chicago?
GREEN: We're asking for a complete (INAUDIBLE)
HOUCK: Aren't you tired of dead children on the streets of Chicago?
GREEN: I've been tired of this (INAUDIBLE) Chicago (INAUDIBLE)
HOUCK: Not from cops, but from thugs shooting at each other?
GREEN: Of course I'm tired of (INAUDIBLE) but I'm also tired of (INAUDIBLE)
HOUCK: When is enough enough, sir?
BALDWIN: Let him respond. Stephen, go ahead.
GREEN: I'm also tired of the neglect. I'm also tired of the economic depravity and the education disparities in the city of Chicago. So I'm not asking for a new face, I'm asking for a completely different song. And we're asking for our people and we're asking for the Justice Department to come in and completely intervene and give an overall investigation into this entire practice and politics, not just to the police department, but the entire city of Chicago.
BALDWIN: But, Harry, let me turn to you and ask you because we've been hearing from a lot of these folks the last couple of days, you know, to the notion of entirely removing, you know, the city leadership from the mayor to, you know, here we have Garry McCarthy to all these police officers. Does that not sound a little far-fetched?
HOUCK: Brooke, how bad has Chicago been for how long?
BALDWIN: A long time.
HOUCK: A long time. These people, I tell, I feel like-
BALDWIN: What do you propose? What do you propose, as someone who's been in law enforcement for years?
HOUCK: Well, first of all, police officers are in a Catch 22 situation now, all right, they're damned if they do police work, and they're damned if they don't. The only way to take back the inner city of Chicago is for police to go in there for aggressive police work. That's it. You have to do that, all right? You got to be able to point the fingers at the bad guys. More people are upset by the word I use-
GREEN: Wait a minute.
HOUCK: -"thug," when I call the guys that shot that nine-year-old "thugs," I'll get tweets and calls from people saying, "Why are you calling him a thug?" Can't they see that that is the problem in the inner city?
BALDWIN: Go ahead, Stephen.
GREEN: No, no, so what you're, you're pointing fingers.
HOUCK: Yeah!
GREEN: What the problem is at the city is Chicago is-
HOUCK: You don't.
GREEN: -is at its very core. This is a system, and it's gone on for generations of oppression and neglect in the city of Chicago. So you want to talk about policing. Let's also talk about education. Let's also talk about poverty.
HOUCK: Yes.
GREEN: Let's also talk about housing. It is more than one issue, and so we're asking for complete and overall reform. Your message is very singular.
BALDWIN: You want to respond to that? Then we're going to go.
HOUCK: Maybe, you know, I'm just tired of the police getting the brunt of everything that's going on inside the inner city of Chicago. You people in, who live-
BALDWIN: No, no, it's not "you people"-
GREEN: You people? You people?
BALDWIN: -Harry Houck, come on.
HOUCK: -in Chicago, all right, the people who live in Chicago should start voting for maybe another person, maybe a Republican, see how he, a Republican can come in there and straighten that city up.
GREEN: I'm not going to get into partisan politics and semantics with you today.
HOUCK: Give it a shot.
GREEN: But I want to let you know that there's a generation rising up now that is in this space that says that we're willing and we're ready to mobilize and to engage in civic engagement, to put people in office who will represent our ideals and practices. But time is up for corruption in the city of Chicago. And so we're asking the Justice Department to come in, to do an investigation. We're asking for a police review board, citizen review board with subpoena power. We're also asking the city of Chicago to implement the President's 21st century task force policies. We're asking for transformation and changes to the city of Chicago, and we're not silent. Much to your dismay, and much to your upset,
HOUCK: For 20 years, you've been silent.
GREEN: -we're not quiet.
BALDWIN: Okay, Stephen Green, thank you. We know the DOJ is in there investigating. And Harry Houck, thank you as well.
