Bernard Kerik, former commissioner of the NYPD, says that he's "disappointed" in Al Sharpton for the role he's played in the fallout of the shooting of black teenager Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson.
"As a civil rights leader, the number one civil right in this country is for people to live in communities safe and sound," Kerik told J.D. Hayworth on "America's Forum" on
Newsmax TV Monday.
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"What he does is inflames, he incites, he antagonizes and his rhetoric is one of the things that fuels these protests that turn into riots," he explained.
"People are calling these people peaceful protesters out in Ferguson, and they're not," he said. "What I've seen are riots — arsonists, burglaries, robberies, violent behavior, violent assaults — those aren't peaceful protesters.
"Every time Al Sharpton gets up there and spews his rhetoric, that's what we see as a result," he added.
Kerik asks why Sharpton isn't in "Chicago when they have 82 people shot on a weekend, predominantly with the most of them black" and "other urban communities where black-on-black crime is completely off the charts?"
Kerik says that despite the racial tensions over the Ferguson shooting that police departments throughout the nation are doing an "extremely" good job of hiring more minority police officers.
"Police departments all over the country right now are doing extremely good jobs at bringing minorities into the departments to match the communities they work in," Kerik said.
"Some more successful than others, but the police departments around the country know that there's a problem," he explained.
"They are trying to deal with the problem, and like I said, some areas better than others, but they're trying to do the best they can," he said.
The former NYPD commissioner says that he agrees with Ray Kelly, another former NYPD commissioner, who said that the
Ferguson Police Department does need to do more to diversify.
"It was 57 cops and three African-American cops in a predominantly African-American community," Kerik told Newsmax.
"Naturally, you need more African-Americans, if you can get them," he said.
"The problem is what is your recruitment ability? What are your standards? Are you getting people to apply from within the community?" he asked.
"I've seen communities here in New Jersey and on the east coast that have predominantly African-American communities where a lot of the people in the community will not apply, and they have to go outside the community to bring people in," he explained.
"You have to look at their requirements and see why they're not getting more African-Americans, more Hispanics in the department," he added.
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