RUSH: I’ll tell you, I don’t know how to characterize this. I’m watching CNN. They’re not happy in Ferguson, Missouri. They’re not happy. I just heard, I guess a resident say that every cop needs to wear a GoPro camera on the name tag, number one, and then have another one as a backup somewhere.

The next thing that needs to happen is that any time there’s an incident like this, the Feds need to come in immediately and tell the people in the community what happened. The Feds need to come in and do an investigation, because, as we all know, the Feds never get it wrong. The
Feds are totally fair and unbiased, and the Feds are totally competent.

And then the next thing the guy said, that every police officer that’s hired, they need to start background checking the guy from high school. They need to find the racists and the bullies, and they need to make sure that these guys don’t get hired in precincts where the people that they are racist and biased against live.

And Don Lemon said, “You know, buddy, if you keep talking, Anderson Cooper’s gonna be out of a job,” and patted him on the back. And then he went to a female resident who said, “The truth of the matter is that this was an execution in this city, and we have to stop executions in this city.” And the crowd applauded and went right on and, “Yeah!” hubba hubba. And it kind of dovetails with what I saw when Ron Johnson, who’s the highway patrol commander, did part of the press conference today earlier, just after noon Eastern, with the governor, Jay Nixon, and he was good. I mean, this guy’s got command. He’s got control of the circumstance, situation, but the people asking him the questions were angry.

he people asking him questions were not happy with his answers. And another person said, “That video has obviously been Photoshopped by the cops.” That was also on CNN. “That video was Photoshopped and the cops just plugged him in there,” and they’re not believing it. So we have a couple of sound bites from the press conference, the highway patrol captain Ron Johnson doing the answering of the questions, and they’re not interested in his message.

Now, by the way, Captain Johnson, just to reiterate, also said — the crowd didn’t like this — he said that he wishes they would have consulted him before naming the officer who killed the gentle giant.

So we have two sound bites, unidentified person in the crowd says to Ron Johnson, the highway patrol captain that’s now in charge of the streets in Ferguson, says, “I have a barbershop in the city of St. Louis. I see a lot of these young men, all different ages, they are wary this thing is gonna go way over just Mike Brown. They’ve been oppressed for so long. What can we do today, captain, that we can assure these young folks that there is somebody here who’s thinking about and caring about and want to protect you from the things that are going on in this world, whether it be the police or the military or what have you? What are we gonna do, captain, to tell these young folks, there’s somebody out there thinking and caring about ’em and protecting ’em?”

What is your first reaction, folks, when you hear that question in terms of an answer? (Interruption) Does nothing come to mind? (interruption) No. No, no. Now that’s fascinating, Snerdley. “The ponytail guy came to my mind.” That’s the guy in Perot-Clinton-H. W. Bush debate in 1992. I think that was in Raleigh, North Carolina. The ponytail guy stood up, “What are you going to do to take care of us? What are you gonna do?” He’s an adult. “What are you going to do to take care of us and bring us together and protect us?” And man, you should have seen it. Clinton practically bowled over a couple of chairs to get to the microphone to answer it first. But that’s not what I get from this. I mean, I can’t say what my reaction is. I can’t win in this stuff, folks, I can’t win. Here’s the answer. This is what Captain Johnson said.

JOHNSON: We have outstanding law enforcement officers in our state, both black and white, male and female. Are we perfect? No, we’re not. But I tell you what, I wake up each day and I’ve got a son and I’ve got a daughter, and I want them to be able to walk these streets with safety. Our intent is to make this state safe. Our intent is to stand strong and protect all of our citizens. But I can tell you, our intent means nothing if those are your feelings. That means we have to do a better job.

RUSH: Pretty good. Pretty good. This guy is good. I’m telling you, we’re gonna be hearing a lot more of Captain Johnson. “But I can tell you, our intent means nothing if these are your feelings.” I kind of like that. “What are you gonna do to protect us?” Remember, now, this is not a guy asking to be protected, Snerdley. This is a barbershop guy, and he’s asking about the young people that come in to his barbershop, that they’ve been oppressed for so long. What do you mean, oppressed? They’ve been voting for Democrats all their lives. (interruption) Well, I know. I’m being facetious. How can they be oppressed? They’ve been voting Democrats.

The Democrats are supposed to get ’em out of oppression, right? St. Louis is run by Democrats. Detroit is run by Democrats. New Orleans is run by Democrats. New York City is run by Democrats. In all of these cities you’re gonna find people who think they’re oppressed. Chicago is run by Democrats. Ho-ho. Chicago. So the barbershop shop guy, “They’ve been oppressed for so long.” Well, you might maybe think about voting for somebody different next time?

Really, it’s been 50 years and you’re voting for the same people over and over. And every year they campaign on the promise to get you out of oppression. And they promise to get you out of poverty. And they promise to make sure nobody gonna be mean to you anymore. And they promise you nobody gonna discriminate against you anymore. And they promise you’re gonna be able to find a new job. And they promise they’re gonna get even with all these oppressors and they promise they’re gonna get even with these people denying you work. And they promise you they’re gonna get even with you for keeping you in poor neighborhoods.

They promise and they promise and they promise, and you keep voting and voting and voting, and after 50 years, you’re still feeling oppressed. That’s my first parse. “What can we do today, Captain, that can assure these young folks that there is somebody here who is thinking about and caring about and want to protect you from the things that are going on in this world?” Now, I’m gonna be hung in effigy for this, but I’m gonna go ahead and say it. When I grew up, that was my parents. (interruption) Okay. So you see I’m in trouble now. I really stepped in it, didn’t I? How dare I? I really stepped in it. But it’s true.

You know, where I grew up, two blocks away lived a Missouri state highway patrolman. (sigh) I can’t remember his name. I was scared to death of the guy. I never saw him in uniform. I just knew he lived there. I was afraid to ride my bicycle past the place. It was just I had that much respect for law enforcement. As a young kid, I’m talking about. It didn’t help… (chuckles) When I was, I don’t know, seven or eight or nine my mother put me on the bus to go see my grandmother in the boot heel of Missouri.

And the bus did not go to the town where she lived. It stopped in a town nearby, Bloomfield, and it stopped at a diner/truck stop-type place. So my grandmother met me, and we went in there and had a burger, Coke, whatever I had as a little kid. And in walked a Missouri state highway patrolman, and my grandmother looked at me and said, “He’s gonna get you! He’s gonna get you! What have you done? He’s coming here for you!”

She was teasing me, but she put the fear of God in me.

“Oh, my God, he’s coming for me? What did I do?”

“You must have done something. That’s why he came in here.” I’m seven or eight years old. (laughing) So every time I drove by the highway patrol guy’s house two blocks away from mine, I was little trepidatious when I did it. But, no. I mean, when I was growing up, the people that made things safe and cared and wanted to protect me from the things going on, that was my parents.

Now, I realize that’s terribly insensitive, and it’s not the way things are in America today, and I realize that I have spoken out of turn. Today, I realize I have been very hurtful with that comment and observation, and I know that that’s not the way America is anymore, and for me to say that is inflammatory; it’s intimidating. But that’s what my first reaction was. Now the second sound bite, and then we got a quick break.

Captain Johnson continued. He continued to answer the question, “Who’s gonna protect these kids that feel oppressed?” The thing you have to understand is that the people at this press conference, citizens, were not satisfied with what he said. There was anger there, folks, and I saw it still again here on CNN just a moment ago.

JOHNSON: We know this isn’t a perfect world. You say you have a barbershop. You know every barber isn’t good. There’s some bad barbers, okay?

CITIZENS: (chuckling)

JOHNSON: That’s kind of the way of the world. But I tell you what: When you go home and you see your kids tonight… When I got home last night, my daughter sent me this. She says, “Daddy, were you scared?” And I said, “Just a little bit. And she said, “Dad, I want you to remember when Jesus asked Peter walk with him on the water,” and she said, “When Peter got scared, Jesus picked him up and said, ‘Have the faith.'” And I’m telling you today: We need to be just like Peter, ’cause I know we’re scared, and I know we falling, but he’s gonna pick us up, and he’s gonna pick this community up.

RUSH: And we will be back after this. Don’t go away.