Rep. Cleaver tells Kenosha rioters: Martin Luther King 'never led a demonstration at night'
'I think that we have to try as hard ... as we can to understand that there are legitimate protesters'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "never led a demonstration at night," Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., said Tuesday on Fox News' "Outnumbered Overtime" in response to a second night of rioting in Wisconsin.
Demonstrators set fires, smashed windows and looted businesses in Kenosha Monday night in response to the police shooting of a Black man over the weekend.
WISCONSIN PROTEST TURNS TO LOOTING, UNREST IN SECOND NIGHT
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Cleaver recalled going to Ferguson, Mo. during the unrest in August 2014 that followed the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer.
"We were given information that we had had almost professional antagonists who had come in from as far away as Los Angeles," Cleaver recalled. "The same thing happened here in Kansas City.
"When we had demonstrations here, I spoke to the crowd and shared my personal experience that Dr. King never led a demonstration at night. They always did it in the daylight hours."
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The violence in Kenosha and Wisconsin's state capitol, Madison, comes as Portland marks nearly 90 consecutive nights of unrest following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May. Several other cities have experienced protests, which have often turned violent as the night drags on.
"I think that we have to try as hard, [and as] best as we can to understand that there are legitimate protesters," he said, emphasizing, "We celebrate protest."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But, he added, "there are the bad people."
Fox News' Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.