The fatal shooting of Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth should not be blamed entirely on the African-American community or everyone in the "Black Lives Matter" movement, a colleague of the slain Houston lawman told
Newsmax TV on Thursday.
"I'm certainly not going to say that we should lump this off on the black community, because I absolutely do not believe that it's true," said Carl Pittman, a member of Project 21, a leadership network of black conservatives, told "The Hard Line" host Ed Berliner. "I do not believe everyone involved in the Black Lives Matter would sanction any of this."
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Pittman is a criminal investigator for the sheriff’s office, where he has worked since 2001.
"But the rhetoric that we have heard recently… that is a very, very dangerous rhetoric where someone who might be easily manipulated might follow through and try to carry something like that out," he said.
Retired Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Cheryl Dorsey agreed.
"We have one individual who did a very horrific thing, and there are certain elements of society that are just bound to commit criminal offenses," she told Berliner. "So I don't think it's fair to broad-blanket-brush everyone who speaks out because of the injustices that are happening in the black and brown community and somehow blame them for what this mentally ill young man did — and he is mentally ill."
Pittman, however, said that the recent spate of killings of law enforcement personnel reflected a broader rage in African-American communities, particularly among young people.
"Something very strange is happening," he began to Berliner. "We have a culture, particularly of younger people, who have come up in an environment where discipline has been lacking — and I do not believe that a police officer that goes out and acts badly, breaks the law, they should be treated, prosecuted just like anyone else.
"There should not be some different standard, and if we were more upfront about getting that done, that might quiet some of the anger.
"But this is something that has been building for many years — and quite frankly some people are trying to play catch-up and they think that now is the opportunity to do just that," Pittman continued. "It's a very dangerous environment for not only police officers.
"We have individuals out there calling for the execution of just white people. This is getting very dangerous, and we need to do something about it."
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