Resident Fox News psychiatrist Keith Ablow encouraged the public to profile Americans with Arabic names in an appearance Thursday on “America’s Newsroom.”
“If somebody named Syed leaves your party and people say, ‘Why is Syed leaving?’, you know what? Call the cops. That’s the point at which we’re at in this country,” Ablow told host Martha MacCallum.
The Fox psychiatrist was referring to Syed Farook, the suspect in Wednesday’s shooting spree in San Bernardino, California who, along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 and injured 21. Farook reportedly left a work holiday party at the Inland Regional Center early, and returned soon after to fire 65-75 rounds into the room where his colleagues had gathered.
Though the FBI has been cautious about labeling the shootings an act of terrorism, saying a motive has not yet been determined, Ablow seemed confident that it was.
“I think [it] looks like a duck looks, acts like a duck,” he said. “I think we’ve got to get ourselves out of denial. It’s a duck, right? The president wants to talk about gun control while America’s bleeding. The bottom line is we’ve got to think about that, too. Why would the president want America to disarm when we are under assault by radical Islam? Interesting. Why?”
President Obama gave a statement soon after news of the shootings broke, saying the US should pass “common sense gun safety laws,” but made no mention of disarming American citizens.
The President has followed law enforcement’s lead in waiting until a motive is determined before speculating publicly on what sparked the massacre. Ablow didn’t share these precautions, suggesting that Farook may have killed his coworkers because he was upset by the focus of his office holiday party.
“Generally we think of holiday parties as revolving around Hanukkah and Christmas. And maybe he just didn’t like that,” Ablow said.
