Criminal defense attorney Mike Cavalluzzi and former prosecutor Loni Coombs discuss recent comments made by Charles Barkey about the grand jury decision in Ferguson, Missouri not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown - as well as his views on racial profiling by law enforcement.
“He comes from these communities, and he worked very had to get out of that community. When somebody works that hard and reaches a level of achievement that makes them enormously wealthy, enormously famous, somebody who becomes very powerful, it changes them,” Cavalluzzi said about the former NBA star.
“It changes them, they cannot stay the same person. They can still maybe have sympathy for members in that community, but at the same time, yes, they become separate from it, and they look at it differently.”
“I don’t think you can discount everything Charles Barkley says,” added Coombs. “What I like about Charles Barkley is that he has the courage to speak his mind, he doesn’t worry about being politically correct, and he doesn’t back off when people start confronting him.”
She added that Barkley’s remarks pointed out a racial sentiment that he believes is being misplaced in the Ferguson case. “He’s saying, look, you cannot assume that all white police officers are out there intending to kill black men, and I agree with that. I don’t think you can say that a police officer is out there intending to kill anybody – black, white whatever color.”
Watch the full episode to also hear the panel discuss the other grand jury in Staten Island, New York that also returned a no indictment verdict in the chokehold death case involving an NYPD officer and Eric Garner.
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