BY BILL JUNEAU
Dan Bongino is an ex New York policeman and a former Secret Service agent who guarded Presidents Bush and Obama---and he comes down hard on the side of law and order.
Recently, he bumped heads with Geraldo Rivera, whom he accuses of using the race game to rile up the masses.
Rivera has said that he favors law and order, but that the police have brought fear to the Black and Brown communities in America, and something has to be done to assure minorities that police are not their enemy. Too many black mothers are more fearful of the police then they are of gang bangers when their sons leave home, he said.
The accidental killing of 20-year-old Daunte Wright by a white police woman who fired her pistol thinking it was her taser gun, has set off Rivera. He seems to equate the shooting, which the officer swears was a tragic accident, with the concept of white supremacy and the denigration of black Americans. The officer, Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran of the department, has been fired and charged with second degree manslaughter.
The taser gun, says Rivera, should be carried on the officer's favored side and the gun with bullets on the other side. That way, says Rivera, the officer will not be making deadly mistakes, and young black men who get stopped for license violations in their car won't end up dead.
Bongino, who is not the type to back down, let Rivera know what he thought of his opinion, though he refrained from being too direct. Police need to have immediate access to their guns when they are being attacked and threatened, but then, he pointed out, "you (Geraldo) have never been a policeman."
You report stories about the police but you don't know squat about the the actual threat the police face every day, he told Rivera a few days ago during their joint appearance on the Sean Hannity show.
Both Rivera and Bongino are contributors to Fox News. When the Hannity segment turned to the recent tragic shooting in Brooklyn, near Minneapolis, the 77-year-old Rivera thumped his chest and said that hereafter the rules ought to be changed so that tasers and not guns with bullets become the "the first weapon of choice for a cop."
Drawing a pistol was "reckless or grossly negligent behavior ” in shooting the 20-year-old unarmed black man, said Rivera --his handlebar mustache twitching with self righteousness.
Glaring at the virtual face of Bongino as though he were a rookie policeman when it comes to street crime, Rivera felt the need to produce his own lengthy resume as a professional observer.
"I have been covering cops for over 50 years. I am perhaps the most deeply experienced reporter in television history," he said of his background. “I have done hundreds of stories over thousands of hours with cops. Everything from shoot-outs to executing arrest warrants, to roadblocks to drug raids. You name it. I like cops and the cops like me."
Somewhat taken aback by Rivera's rant and self praise, along with his promotion of a race narrative, Bongino shook his head and observed, “I don’t even know how to respond. Give me a second to digest the stupidity of that.
" ---- Geraldo, take a Valium,” Bongino told Rivera after a pause. “You’ve been talking forever. You really gotta pipe down. Calm down. Get a hold of yourself.”
Reporters (like you) are supposed to deal in facts and you brought in the race card despite having no facts to back it up, blasted Bongino, adding "contrary to your narrative, 'systemic racism' does not exist in police departments. Stop pretending to be a policeman."
If white officers are hunting down Black men every night, where is this massive body count? Bongino stormed. The crossfire continued, and Bongino told Rivera: "You just want to see the country burn."
Rivera came unglued and shouted:
"I want to see the country burn?...You son of a bitch. I want to see the country burn? ...you punk. You're nothing but a punk, Bongino, You're a punk," he yelled.
Bongino fired back, "You wouldn't tell me that to my face," but before he could say more, Hannity cut to a commercial. After the break, the combatants were gone and Hannity continued on with news of what he perceived as the stumbling and inefficient policies of Joe Biden.
Bongino, 46, was a New York policeman for four years in the late 1990s, and was a secret service agent from 1999 to 2011. He has a master's degree in business from Pennsylvania State university, and has bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology from Queens college in New York. He ran unsuccessfully for congressman and senator from Maryland, and is the author of several books.
As a conservative commentator, he has a strong following. On May 24, he is scheduled to begin a radio show in some time slots left vacant by the death of conservative talk show icon Rush Limbaugh.
Geraldo Rivera,77, is a journalist, and lawyer and has been a political commentator for many years. He hosted the television show, "Geraldo" from 1987 to 1998. Although a registered Republican, he sometimes lines up with liberal causes, which often generate discord with other conservatives. He is the author of several books.
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