During an interview with NYPD Chief Terence Monahan on Tuesday, CBS This Morning co-host Tony Dokoupil pressed him to admit “racism” was plaguing police departments across the country. After Monahan rejected the notion, Dokoupil and fellow co-host Gayle King engaged in hand-wringing over his refusal to accept the accusation.
“What role does racism play in these outcomes, where you have black men dying at a greater rate than other populations at the hands of police?,” Dokoupil asked. Monahan pushed back: “I don’t believe racism plays a role in New York. I can only speak for what I’ve seen in New York City.”
Dokoupil then proceeded to scold the senior NYPD official: “And yet, you’ve got these outcomes. And if those protesters heard you say that racism doesn’t play a role. That’s why they’re here, that’s why they’re angry. They don’t think you get it.” Monahan reiterated: “I would never say theat we’re a racist police department. Absolutely not.”
He pointed out that any individual instances of racial bias were taken seriously by the department: “Have incidents happened? Maybe there was a racist incident, something, and that person has been removed from the agency? Absolutely. We all care about the communities we work in. We care deeply in the minority communities, the cops that work there each and every day.”
Following the taped interview, Dokoupil lamented: “Yeah, so you have a problem there that is obvious to some people but chief members of the NYPD police force, at least, don’t want to name it. And if you don’t name it, it can be hard to solve it.”
Moments later, King chimed in: “...when people say that racism isn’t the issue, or they don’t believe that’s the issue, it’s such a contradiction and it’s so hard to understand. That’s why...people are in the streets.” Dokoupil agreed: “Yeah. You can bridge the gulf in part by taking a knee and joining hands, but if you can’t say it along with them, it’s hard to move forward.”
Talking to far-left New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones in the 8:00 a.m. ET hour, co-host Anthony Mason fretted: “The top New York Police Department uniformed officer told Tony earlier in this broadcast he didn’t see systemic racism in the New York Police Department. If we’re not hearing officials even consider that possibility, how do we correct it?”
Hannah-Jones – who recently claimed property damage and looting during protests was “not violence” – hammered Monahan and claimed police departments across the country were at risk of “infiltration” by “white supremacist groups”:
I don’t even understand how he could utter those words. The FBI put out a report just a couple of years ago raising the alarm about the infiltration of police forces across this nation by white supremacist groups, including the Klu Klux Klan. So we know that there’s a problem of racism within police departments. It’s been documented by the nation’s highest law enforcement office. This is up to citizens to hold law enforcement accountable and politicians accountable who want to downplay what is clearly happening. It is not saying every police officer is racist. That is obvious. But there is a deeply embedded problem with racism in the police department. And in fact, the role the police departments have played has been to enforce racial laws and racial policies against black Americans and we still see that in how policing happens.
In the 8:30 half hour, Dokoupil worried to liberal activist Marc Lamont Hill:
One of the gulfs that have emerged here between police and protesters is that protesters say, “Look, cops may not be racist individually, but the system is producing racist results.” Then when you talk to officers, as I have, they don’t want to use the “R” word. How do you bridge that divide?
Hill hoped that “we can get to a place where everyone recognizes implicit bias, everyone understands structural racism, and everyone understands their complicity in that system.”
On Monday, the CBS morning show lined up a series of “experts” on race relations to claim that “white Americans” are “taught” to have “contempt for black life.”
Here is a transcript of the June 2 coverage on CBS This Morning:
7:34 AM ET
(...)
TONY DOKOUPIL: What role does racism play in these outcomes, where you have black men dying at a greater rate than other populations at the hands of police?
TERENCE MONAHAN [NYPD CHIEF]: I don’t believe racism plays a role in New York. I can only speak for what I’ve seen in New York City.
DOKOUPIL: And yet, you’ve got these outcomes. And if those protesters heard you say that racism doesn’t play a role. That’s why they’re here, that’s why they’re angry. They don’t think you get it.
MONAHAN: I would never say theat we’re a racist police department. Absolutely not. Have incidents happened? Maybe there was a racist incident, something, and that person has been removed from the agency? Absolutely. We all care about the communities we work in. We care deeply in the minority communities, the cops that work there each and every day.
DOKOUPIL: Yeah, so you have a problem there that is obvious to some people but chief members of the NYPD police force, at least, don’t want to name it. And if you don’t name it, it can be hard to solve it.
It’s worth noting, Gayle, and one of the things that complicates the situation here in New York, is that the majority of officers in the NYPD are minorities themselves. It’s a majority minority department. And Chief Monahan points out that officers in his department, they do frequently face repercussions for inappropriate actions. If there’s a bad cop, they get rid of him. He says about a hundred cops every year are fired.
GAYLE KING: Chief Monahan, I thought, Tony, touched a lot of hearts yesterday when he knelt down with the protesters and was hugging and engaging with them. But then on the other hand, when people say that racism isn’t the issue, or they don’t believe that’s the issue, it’s such a contradiction and it’s so hard to understand. That’s why – that’s exactly as you point out – why people are in the streets.
DOKOUPIL: Yeah. You can bridge the gulf in part by taking a knee and joining hands, but if you can’t say it along with them, it’s hard to move forward. But move forward we must.
KING: Yeah.
(...)
8:21 AM ET
ANTHONY MASON: At the same time, just this week, Nikole Hannah-Jones we’ve heard the President’s National Security Advisor say he did not believe there was systemic racism in police departments across the country. The top New York Police Department uniformed officer told Tony earlier in this broadcast he didn’t see systemic racism in the New York Police Department. If we’re not hearing officials even consider that possibility, how do we correct it?
NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES [NEW YORK TIMES]: I don’t even understand how he could utter those words. The FBI put out a report just a couple of years ago raising the alarm about the infiltration of police forces across this nation by white supremacist groups, including the Klu Klux Klan. So we know that there’s a problem of racism within police departments. It’s been documented by the nation’s highest law enforcement office. This is up to citizens to hold law enforcement accountable and politicians accountable who want to downplay what is clearly happening. It is not saying every police officer is racist. That is obvious. But there is a deeply embedded problem with racism in the police department. And in fact, the role the police departments have played has been to enforce racial laws and racial policies against black Americans and we still see that in how policing happens.
(...)
8:38 AM ET
DOKOUPIL: One of the gulfs that have emerged here between police and protesters is that protesters say, “Look, cops may not be racist individually, but the system is producing racist results.” Then when you talk to officers, as I have, they don’t want to use the “R” word. How do you bridge that divide?
MARC LAMONT HILL: We need to have honest conversation. We need to draw from resources, we need to draw from evidence and data. And we need to sort of get people to understand what the world looks like from someone else’s vantage point. Because, again, I think they’re right. There are individual cops who are great people, who you may have great relationships with interpersonally, but this is a systemic question. This is a structural question. And I think the more resources we pull into the conversation, the more we can get people to understand. Just last week, look how many people who didn’t understand police violence can suddenly understand it differently when they see George Floyd in that awful video. That’s something that I think everyone can understand is problematic. I’m not saying we need more video, but we do need more conversation about such videos so that we can get to a place where everyone recognizes implicit bias, everyone understands structural racism, and everyone understands their complicity in that system.
(...)
