RUSH: Back to the phones we go, John, and once again in St. Louis. Welcome, sir. It’s great to have you on the program. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. First-time caller, longtime listener.
RUSH: Great to have you here.
CALLER: Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Yeah, I’m a retired physician who lives in North County in St. Louis about two miles from all the demonstrations that are going on. From my perspective — we’re been here for over 30 years — I’m glad the police are stepping up and do this. Well, a lot of us are concerned about the violences. (sic) You gotta remember, the protestors have a right to protest as long as it’s peaceful.
But around 4:30/five o’clock every night it turns violent. I personally would like to have seen the police step it up even further to crack down this lawlessness and vandalism that’s going on here in St. Louis. This is pathetic to see what’s happening here, to allow these people to break the law consistently. Their so-called selective indignation is not appropriate.
A year ago, last Fourth of July, as a retired physician I’m out here with my family, a young black man, who was a future collegiate basketball player. He was shot in the head and in the chest for nothing but standing up for his cousin, because of derogatory statements made after being seen by a bunch of young thugs on the street. Now, I didn’t see any marching, any indignation.
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. I missed that. Who shot this kid?
CALLER: A bunch of Afro-American kids. (garbled)
RUSH: It was a gang? It was a gang shooting?
CALLER: It was a gang, and they shot this innocent young man who was bound for college as a college basketball player.
RUSH: Anybody know why they shot him?
CALLER: Yeah, ’cause he stood up for his cousin, because they were making derogatory comments about her.
RUSH: So he “dissed” these guys —
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: — while defending his cousin and that’s intolerable. So, yeah.
CALLER: And they pulled out a gun and shot him in the head, and I stabilized him ’til the paramedics got there. You gotta remember, Rush, that the people that are coming in after the peaceful demonstrations are not even from Ferguson. They’re from other parts of the area. They’re coming in to cause problems, and those of us who are taxpayers here, we’re fed up with this!
RUSH: Well, they’re —
CALLER: I mean, consistently, gunshots! Twice a week we hear five to six gunshots going off in the community up here. I really think I’m behind the police. Now, I’m not for shooting an innocent individual. I don’t care white, black, what have you. And that needs to be evaluated, looked into appropriate way. But what’s happening here in Ferguson is nothing but thuggery. These people, especially after the sun goes down around here, they’re just causing problems.
You know, they’re throwing things, objects, the vulgar language. And then there’s been actual recording of gunshots being shot at the police. To allow this to go on… I thought we were a country of laws. I’m ex-military, and I don’t believe in this. I think something needs to be done to stop this. And to allow this to go on like this idiot governor we have? I think this is pathetic, Rush.
RUSH: Well, I’ll tell you, I think that there’s a lot of frustration over lawlessness in the country. It’s everywhere, and I think police departments are also fed up. They’re human. They’re citizens, too, and they’re human beings. Look at the immigration laws. We have the government of this country actively suing states which attempt to enforce existing immigration law.
Immigration law counts for nothing anymore. We have a president who is bragging about executive orders and executive actions — and if Congress won’t act, he will. I submit to you that all of this sends a message, a subtle signal that the law, if it doesn’t apply to some people, it doesn’t apply at anybody.
If people can get an exemption from it, if the president doesn’t have to obey the law, if the immigration laws don’t have to be obeyed… You throw in every other societal aspect that results in our culture pending crumbling and rotting. It’s a very slow process. It has taken years. This, I don’t think, happened overnight.
But you have a general frustration on the part of everybody that there doesn’t seem to be any glue holding everything together. The honor system doesn’t seem to even work, and the rule of law combined with the honor system is what has kept, for example, elected officials and law enforcement officials honest. It all seems to be breaking down. I actually think that in many places… I don’t know about Ferguson.
But I do know that in New Jersey we had a cop the other day who trashed Obama and he was fired, and it was all about, “Hey, if this guy can break the law, why can’t we?” I think this attitude is effervescing out there all over this country, and when lawlessness happens to be celebrated by the media and laughed at because whoever’s breaking the law gets away with it and wins political in the process, I don’t think it can help but send a signal to people.
Go to Chicago. Has anybody been convicted or even tried for the wanton murders that are committed there every weekend, it seems? So there’s a… I don’t know how to describe it. It’s a slowly evolving reality that people think nothing is holding anything together anymore. I think cops are every bit as susceptible to this as any other citizen is, and I think they’re as frustrated by it as anybody else is.
They’re as frustrated by lawbreakers who get away with it. They’re as frustrated as anyone, maybe even more so. How hard they work to bring people to justice and then technicalities get cases thrown out? It’s been going on for a long, long time — and then, at some point, a tipping point is reached. So I understand you and our previous caller from St. Louis basically saying the same things. So I appreciate your time. I’m glad you took the time. Thank you for waiting to get on.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Joseph in Las Vegas, as we stick with the phones. Welcome, sir. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. I’ve been listening to you since I was just a kid in the mid-nineties driving around with my dad in his car, so good to talk to you for the first time.
RUSH: Thank you very much. Appreciate that.
CALLER: So most of the time I agree with everything that is on your show, everything that you say and, you know, I have plenty of friends that are actually in law enforcement and I support the police. I also support them protecting the citizens against the riots and the looting and stuff, which is just terrible. But in the instance, when you’re talking about these reporters that were arrested at McDonald’s, I was a bit disturbed by it only because, you know, they are in McDonald’s, they paid, they’re customers, and it just appeared that they weren’t moving quickly enough for those officers, and that’s why they were arrested, which is a bit disturbing. They obviously were released later because there really was no charges that would stick, filed against them. But it just was a bit disturbing that that would happen only because there didn’t seem like a sense of emergency where they were. So, you know, I don’t know. I don’t really agree with the actions of the police officers in that instance.
RUSH: Nor do I. That’s a tactical mistake to arrest the journalists and that’s why, when they found out they were journalists, they let ’em go. They weren’t sure at the outset because when they were in their holding room with everybody else they’d rounded up and arrested, some cop, according to the journalists themselves, some cop came in, “Who’s media?” These guys raised their hands and the cop basically released ’em, kicked ’em out. I think the cops even know that they shouldn’t have arrested them. Did you hear me say that I supported the arresting the journalists?
CALLER: No, I guess you were more talking about the response that the journalists actually had to the incident. And obviously the journalists, liberal media, they’re gonna use that as a podium to, you know, do their whole spiel about why they were arrested or whatever else their whole political slant was for that, I guess.
RUSH: No, the only thing I said was that — and you might have misinterpreted this depending on —
CALLER: I might have.
RUSH: — when you tuned in and what you’d heard prior to it. I simply made the observation, these are very high wire, high tension situations. The cops go into this place, apparently it’s already been looted with damage done, and they order everybody out. What I said was, if a cops tells you to get out right now, and it takes you 30 seconds to move, you’re in trouble. When they order you out, it’s like your drill sergeant wants 30 push-ups, you do ’em now. You don’t do ’em this afternoon. You move. When armed cops come in and tell you to do it, you do it. You be polite, you do it and you get out of there. And if you don’t act quickly enough they’re not gonna waste time ’cause everybody here is at a fever pitch in this circumstance. But there’s nothing to be gained by arresting reporters, and they know that. That’s why they released them.
CALLER: Well, then I guess we don’t disagree.
RUSH: No, no. Not about — no, no, no, no. No. (laughing) I’m glad you called. I would hate to have you running around Vegas this afternoon, you might have been so upset that you disagreed with me you could have lost money at the tables.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: And I don’t want that. No, no, no. The only thing I said that might give you that impression was, I did say that the reason they might have been arrested is they didn’t act fast enough.
CALLER: Yeah, and that’s the only thing that I was a little bit still like, you know, it’s kind of subjective, not acting fast enough. It’s really a judgment call, you know, based on whatever the current situation or threat is.
RUSH: Yeah, there’s I don’t think any justification. The journalists weren’t posing a threat. The cops were not threatened here. But just remember, when they found out they were media, they were practically kicked out of the holding room. And don’t forget one reporter, don’t forget this, Joseph. The guy from the Huffing and Puffington Post, Reilly, had a little guilt, he had a little release guilt. He said that he was double privileged, A, he’s white, and, B, he’s a journalist. So he had special privileges. He was released before others were, and he felt a little guilty about that because of his double privilege dose. So I said, “Well, you could have stayed. You didn’t have to leave.” The way he was writing this it was almost as though he didn’t think he was held long enough. ‘Cause it’s all about equality and fairness, so forth.
Anyway, I appreciate the call and the and the opportunity to restore your faith and let you know that we don’t disagree. (interruption) I have no idea how this is going to end. Snerdley is saying me, “Do you think it’s gonna fizzle out? How do you think it’s gonna end?” I have no idea. I don’t even have a feel for how this is going to turn out. I’ve thought things are spinning out of control in this country long before this happened. But this adds to it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Yeah, we can go back to St. Louis. Jackie, great to have you. Thank you for waiting. You’re next on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hello.
CALLER: Hello! Can you hear me?
RUSH: Yeah. I hear you fine. You won’t be able to hear me, but I hear you.
CALLER: Okay. What I wanted to say to the man that called in from Ferguson saying that he’s a resident? What I wanted him to know is that this type thing is happening all over from St. Louis City to St. Louis County and it’s widespread. Now, I know it’s probably an inconvenience for them up there, but this is… They pay their taxes, too, and their officers are the ones that did the killing, and I think that this person needs to be arrested, actually, and put in jail.
RUSH: Jackie?
CALLER: And when they speak of the crowd, it’s like mob action, and it raises a eyebrow because they say the Ku Klux Klan is “a social group,” and they are bent on murder, killing, harassment, intimidation. Now, the looting for… (aside to someone) Hold up. Hold up. I’m talking. The looting part, I disagree with that. I don’t think anybody should have been looting, and I think that those reporters should not have been harassed or touched. Some charges ought to be filed against the police department because they’re out here to do a job, and their job is to give coverage on both sides of what’s going on, and then by them acting in a manner as if they had something to hide… So…
RUSH: Jackie?
CALLER: Yeah?
RUSH: When you say, “This is happening all over the city and the county.”
CALLER: Yes. Yes.
RUSH: What is happening all over the city and county?
CALLER: Young people — I’m not gonna say just black or of the minority race, because you have some whites that have been killed, and not as many as the minorities have been.
RUSH: So you mean the cops are shooting people all over the city and the county?
CALLER: Pretty much, yes, and these people do not even have a criminal record. You can look at how many people have been released from jail. Tons of ’em because of lies or tampered DNA evidence. And when it’s retried again, this person spent 20 or 30 years in jail, and you get out? You can’t replace the time that you’ve stolen, nor can you replace the life that you’ve taken.
RUSH: Right, but I’m still stuck. You say this is happening all over the city and the county.
CALLER: Yes, it is.
RUSH: It’s more than just this one incident?
CALLER: More than one incident.
RUSH: Okay. Why is this the only one that we’re hearing about?
CALLER: Well, you know what? This is the first time that there’s been a stand made about it. You know, I myself have lived in Ferguson —
RUSH: Oh, first time —
CALLER: — and I also have sons, and they were harassed, and we moved out of the county.
RUSH: You think the police have a duty to cover both sides of it?
CALLER: The reporters. Right.
RUSH: Oh, the reporters have a duty to cover both sides.
CALLER: And for them to be harassed and arrested, that is crazy, and they’ll even say that they didn’t know they were reporters. That’s even more crazier, ’cause they had camera equipment and things they had to put up. No, I disagree with them being arrested.
RUSH: All right. So you basically, you don’t believe the police in circumstances like this?
CALLER: No, they got some good cops, but they also got some bad ones, and they need to weed out the bad ones because just those 10, 20, 30 of them make the whole force look terrible. They need to be held accountable for the wrong that they do.
RUSH: And you think…?
CALLER: They’re not supported.
RUSH: Do you think the Ferguson Police Department is protecting this cop that pulled the trigger?
CALLER: Mmmm. That’s a hard one to say because I’m not sure that they are doing it, Rush.
RUSH: Do you think they’re actively really investigating this to try to find out who did it and whether or not it was justified, or do you think they’re trying to find a way to cover this up to protect the cop?
CALLER: I think they might would have wanted to cover it, but since they took this particular incident and turned it over to the FBI, it’ll probably be a better thing of it. Because me, myself, I want to talk to the civil rights leaders, and I am gonna go talk to ’em about different incidents in different areas that have not been taken care of, and that’s allowed.
RUSH: There’s some news there, folks, that this is happening all over St. Louis.
CALLER: Yes, it’s all over.
RUSH: Really? For some strange reason, all those other incidents are not getting the attention this one’s getting.
CALLER: The only reason this is getting a lot of attention is because there was a lot of damage being caused, and the people were out there, and I guess they just had had it to the last end.
RUSH: Okay. I get this. So this one’s getting attention because the victims had had enough and finally stood up and said something about it. Okay, Jackie. I appreciate the call. Thank you. Thanks very much.
I’ve gotta take a brief time-out here, folks, but we’ll be back.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: No, no. I think I know what Jackie meant when she said it happens all the time, but we only hear about certain instances of it. I know exactly what that means. She’s not talking about the cops. She’s just talking about the level of crime in neighborhoods in general.
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