MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: NYPD Officer Killings Aftermath

Interview

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SCHULTZ: With Officer Liu and his partner Rafael Ramos laid to rest, the
city now turns the difficult task of peeling the relationship between its
police force and the mayor of the city.

I`m joined tonight by Congressman Gregory Meeks and also Congressman
Charles Rangel, both of New York. This is their city. Gentlemen, great to
have you with us tonight.

REP. GREGORY MEEKS, (D) NEW YORK: Good to be with you, Ed.
SCHULTZ: We`re looking for solutions. Congressman Rangel, you first, what
is the solution here? This rhetoric continues on. This disrespect
continues on.

REP. CHARLES RANGEL, (D) NEW YORK: Well, the major thing was giving
respect to those heroes and those police officers that had to be reminded
how much the city needs them, loves them and that has been done. We can`t
get away from the issues that brought us to this. And now is the time, not
at funerals, now is the time to sit down.

Now I don`t know what the Chaplins are doing there with the New York City
Police Department, I don`t know what our spiritual leaders are doing, I
don`t even know what the African-Americans members of the police department
are doing. All I can say is that there`s a lot of layers as to what`s
going on and little has to do with the assassination of these two brave men
that the nation mourns their death. And I think that Pat Lynch has one
hell of an opportunity to bring us together and to recognize that his anger
is misdirected.

SCHULTZ: Well, he is angry and he has been very pointed in this. And he
has been very much against the mayor and his actions using the mayor as a
target. I mean, is this the way you patch stuff up in New York?

RANGEL: No, no, but let`s think about it. What is he angry about? You
know, is he angry about the contracts? Is he angry about the competition
in the police department? I don`t know. What is he -- is he angry because
the president talks about his son being black and maybe possibly
mistreated? Is he angry because the mayor`s kid he`s got two black kids
and he like most fathers have to give (inaudible)? What is he really angry
about?

SCHULTZ: OK.

RANGEL: It`s a word that we don`t like talking about, but the funeral is
over and two of these people of color.

SCHULTZ: Congressman Meeks? Solution?

MEEKS: You know, a lot of weight now falls on Mr. Lynch because you got to
meet halfway. The mayor has called folks in and that every word that he
said, he`s talked about bringing the city together. He`s talked about, you
know, and he`s been truthful because we still got to deal with now that the
funeral is over, you know, what we talked about in the city with reference
to justice for everybody and every life matters, so that`s got to be dealt
that with.

Mr. Lynch has to be able to sit down and listen to people willing to talk
about that, to talk about the feelings of the community because in the
African-American and other communities where they do feel overly, you know,
where you have stopped and frisk and attack a police that went on before --
even before the assassination of the police officers, we still have to deal
with that. And Mr. Lynch has to be willing to come to the table to say
we`ve got to deal with that as well as to make sure that the message is not
with anti-police. Nobody has said that they were anti-police.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, where is the public on this?

MEEKS: I think the public is clear. If you look at the crowds, they were
out there even the demonstrations after the gone of incident. There were
not just black people out there. There were black, there were white, there
were Asian, there were, you know, Hispanic, it was everybody. Even former
President George W. Bush said, looking at the tape, you know, and then
looking at the decision with reference of the Grand Jury that it was
troubling, he was confused.

SCHULTZ: Wasn`t Mayor de Blasio elected in this town to bring change? I
mean, isn`t that what the people wanted? They wanted changes within police
procedures in this town.

RANGEL: Well, he dealt with the question of color and I submit that when
we start looking through all of the layers that brought us to where we are,
the assassinations is being used as a cover not to deal with the problems
that we have.

SCHULTZ: There is no doubt. I mean, this country has a hard time
understanding many mental illness to start with and what to do with it and
they`ve taken this situation and injected.

RANGEL: Exactly.

SCHULTZ: . that. Unfortunately, a disturbed person taking the life of two
police officers and a whole Pandora`s Box of other problems and, I think,
targeting the mayor.

MEEKS: Right, because this incident is no different to me when I looked at
it as the crazy killer who went and tried to assassinate my -- our former
colleague Gabby Giffords. It was a crazy man who went out there and
committed a horrendous act.

SCHULTZ: Isn`t it important, though, to point out that not all the police
officers turned their back?

MEEKS: Absolutely.

SCHULTZ: I mean, there`s a few in the ranks that are saying, you know, by
respecting these officers saying, "OK, we got to move on," but there are
some that are saying they don`t want to move on. Your thoughts, Charles.

RANGEL: And it`s awkward because no one wants to be in the position that
should -- not with your colleagues right or wrong. But -- When the moral
issue raises that, beyond not just being white and that you show that you
have so much love and respect for the job that you have assumed that you`re
not going to allow a handful of people who are blinded by hate just for the
reputation. That`s a hell of a lot that has to do with -- I was in combat,
I`m telling you I saw more dead people, but I never was moved until I saw
dead people that looked like me in my uniform and it does make a
difference.

And so, yes, the blue wall of silence has kept communities and minority
community support for so long so that even minority policemen don`t want to
break that silence, that has to be done.

MEEKS: It is important to note, though, and both Charlie, and I was at the
funeral of Officer Liu yesterday, that the majority of police officers did
not turn in.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

MEEKS: And that should be pointed out that it was -- the few that turned
their back, and that`s the problem, that -- what the community has talked
about. There`s a few that are disrespectful to the community in which they
put patrol also.

And so those individuals, we don`t want -- if you disrespect the mayor then
that shows the potential of disrespecting the community with your police
and so there should be that kind of understanding. But the majority of
police officers did not disrespect the mayor and the majority do patrol
properly but we hadn`t focused on those few that disrespect the mayor and
that disrespects the community and what they patrol.

RANGEL: And they took advantage of the timing at a funeral where no one
could pull them out and really give them the knuckle slapping that they
deserve. They took the most sensitive time where people are crying and
mourning for their comrades and instead of crying, mourning with the rest
of the city, they felt more selfishly about their personal problems and
that was wrong.

SCHULTZ: Congressman Rangel and Congressman Meeks, good to have you with
us tonight on the Ed Show. I appreciate it very much.

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