Dan Bongino responds to video of mob attacking Baltimore officer: I blame the political leaders
A video posted on social media shows a Baltimore police sergeant repeatedly kicked by bystanders while trying to make an arrest; reaction from Fox News contributor Dan Bongino, former NYPD officer.
Former NYPD officer Dan Bongino reacted Monday to a video posted on social media showing a Baltimore police sergeant being kicked by bystanders while he wrestled with a suspect, blaming the city's political leaders for overall anti-police climate.
Bongino, a Fox News contributor, made the comment on “Fox & Friends” on Monday adding, “I was a police officer in Rudy Giuliani's New York. Listen, nobody’s perfect, no mayor, no president, nobody else. But this kind of nonsense was never ever acceptable.”
“If you were in this video in Rudy Giuliani's New York, they didn't have cell phone cameras back then, but if they did, you were going to jail,” he continued. “There was no doubt about it and these people need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The video shows the police officer being repeatedly kicked while trying to make the arrest. The suspect in the video had allegedly spat in the officer's face.
The officer was not seriously injured but Maryland’s governor and the city’s mayor and police commissioner all condemned the crowd’s behavior – while also praising the work of the police officer.
Sgt. Mike Mancuso, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, said city officials shared in the blame for the attack, claiming it was “indicative of a broken city that is being led by people who have absolutely no real-time crime plan or, it seems, even know how to formulate one.”
Mancuso added that “We are disgusted by what is shown on the video; however, this is an all too familiar scenario to our members.”
Baltimore’s state’s attorney, Marilyn Mosby, reacted to the attack saying on Saturday, “I am disgusted by the blatant assault against the police officer in the video... I am also disappointed by the FOP’s [Fraternal Order of Police's] continued inappropriate political rhetoric, fanning the very flames they then call me to put out.”
Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and Fox News contributor, said the statement is "not enough."
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“Of course everybody is going to condemn the video,” he continued. “This is a long-term longitudinal attitude where you don’t jump on the police's back and make them a political pinball at every opportunity. Unfortunately, that's what happens in a lot of big cities now. It's a real shame.”
Fox News’ Dom Calicchio contributed to this report.
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