Ed Schultz suggested on his MSNBC show Wednesday night that police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, should be disarmed in order to effect real change, following a Justice Department report that accused the police department of racial bias.
“I’ll give you this one: What about disarming the police?” Mr. Schultz asked panelist Michael Eric Dyson, according to a video provided by The Daily Caller. “What about just having them carry nightsticks and the authority to arrest?”
Mr. Schultz then mused that there are places around the world that employ unarmed patrol men, such as in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
“I mean, it would take a brave person to do something like that,” he noted. “I know the right wing’s gonna think I’m crazy for saying that, but if you really want change, you have to institutionally show it to the people that you want to do this. And that would be part of a big social engineering project if Ferguson’s going to turn around. That’s how I see it.”
Mr. Schultz’s comments came just hours before two Ferguson police officers were shot and critically wounded during a protest rally outside the police headquarters early Thursday morning, after the city’s police chief had resigned.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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