A former Ferguson police chief got a condescending lecture about the meaning of  “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” from the apparent experts at “The View.”

Whoopi Goldberg and her co-hosts thought they would enlighten former police chief Tom Jackson about racism and the meaning behind the phrase that surfaced with the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Jackson, who was promoting his book about his experiences during the Brown shooting, said he was surprised that “so many people were willing to believe that that happened, that an unarmed man was shot down at noon in a densely populated area while he was surrendering.”

He was immediately interrupted by host, Sunny Hostin.

“Because it does happen. Because it does happen,” she insisted, to which he responded, “But it didn’t happen here.”

“Do you know what hands up, don’t shoot means to most people?” Goldberg jumped in.

“Yes I do,” Jackson replied, which clearly did not satisfy Goldberg.

“What do you think it means?” she pressed

“Police brutality,” he said, as Goldberg announced, “No. That’s not what it means.”

“It’s what — at least for me it’s what our parents say, hands up, when you put your hands up, you’re basically saying ‘don’t shoot.’ So hands up, don’t shoot doesn’t mean that’s necessarily what Michael said. That is the way to let you know as a police officer that’s their way of letting you know as a police officer, that’s what that means,” she said, delighting the audience who applauded the smug explanation.

Never mind that Goldberg implied that Brown had surrendered by putting his hands in the air, which Jackson had just explained was not true.

Hostin joined the lecture, unloading about racism in the criminal justice system.

“What you said in your book in chapter 8 was shocking to me. You wrote, ‘let’s be honest, facts don’t lie. No one can argue the data that clearly shows African-Americans account for a wildly disproportionate number of arrests, street stops, use of force incidents, incarcerations and other measurable events within our criminal justice system.’ You understand why that’s a fact?” she asked Jackson.

“Because they are disproportionately stopped and arrested. And incarcerated,” Hostin condescendingly explained, sparking applause from the audience.  “Simply because they are black. As a law enforcement officer you do understand that, don’t you?”

“I do understand the disproportionately,” Jackson answered, “and I think there’s just so many factors that go into it and one of the things is the core of the problem that I see is concentrated poverty. It’s the outcropping of failed policies trying to right the wrongs of past decades but what we have is concentrated poverty…”

He was interrupted again.

“And racism,” Hostin said.

“And racism. Racism plays a little,” GOldberg chimed in, drawing applause from the audience again.

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Frieda Powers

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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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