Fox News host Bill O’Reilly on Tuesday night said that the problems that the black community faces in Baltimore stem from issues with “personal behavior.”
O’Reilly noted that the mayor and police commissioner in Baltimore are both black.
“Despite African-Americans controlling Baltimore, the city’s not prospering,” O’Reilly said. “The facts then dictate that racial persecution really isn’t the problem in Baltimore. Something else is in play. That something else is personal behavior.”
The Fox host then cited statistics that show that a large number of the crimes in Baltimore are committed by black people.
“With so many African-Americans committing crimes, there’s going to be tension between the cops and the community,” he said.
O’Reilly said that most blacks in Baltimore are “good, honest people who reject crime.”
“These idiotic thugs rioting and looting are hurting their own people,” he added.
O’Reilly said that police officers need to refrain from using certain tactics, but he said that much responsibility lies with the black community.
“It’s long past time for police agencies in America to have a no-tolerance policy toward brutality on the part of officers. Every American, even criminals, should be safe in police custody,” he said. “But it is also long past time for African American communities across the country to begin to police themselves.”
Watch the clip via Fox News:
