RUSH: Tim in Liver Grove — Liver Grove? There’s no such thing as Liver Grove. Liver Grove, Illinois; is that right?
CALLER: That’s right, Rush. Semper fi from River Grove, Illinois.
RUSH: Where is it?
CALLER: Just outside of Chicago near O’Hare airport.
RUSH: Is it anywhere near Downers Grove?
CALLER: No, that’s farther south.
RUSH: Is it anywhere near Little Grove?
CALLER: No. (laughing)
RUSH: Cause, I’m sorry. I thought Snerdley misheard you and typed Liver Grove.
CALLER: River, River Grove.
RUSH: It says Liver up there. Oh, it’s River Grove, is that what you’re saying?
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: Okay, I was right, I knew it wasn’t Liver Grove. River Grove. Okay, anyway, I didn’t mean to take that much time. It will not count against your airtime. What was on your mind today, Tim?
CALLER: Okay, real quick, Rush, there’s a black suburban cop on trial here in the Chicago area for killing a 95-year-old white World War II veteran in a nursing home with a beanbag shotgun, and I’m not seeing Reverend Al around here. I’m not seeing the national press covering this, and the trial is going on as we speak. Your thoughts?
RUSH: You have a suburban, you mean, the SUV?
CALLER: No, no, no, a suburban cop. It’s a suburb of Chicago.
RUSH: Oh. Oh, oh, oh. You have a cop in a Chicago suburb —
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: — who’s black?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: Park Forest, Illinois, is where he’s from.
RUSH: Okay, and he shot a 95-year-old nursing home resident —
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: — who walks around with a cane, with a beanbag gun?
CALLER: Yes, sir. And he’s on trial today for that excessive force.
RUSH: Did the 95-year-old man perish?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: With a beanbag gun?
CALLER: Yes, he hit him.
RUSH: Well, hang on a minute. Yeah, ’cause we gotta — wow.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay. Now we go back to Tim in River Grove, Illinois. We have here a black cop from suburban Chicago, who bean-bagged, shot a beanbag gun at a 95-year-old who had a cane, and the cop claims that the 95-year-old was threatening him with the cane.
CALLER: Correct.
RUSH: And the 95-year-old man is dead. When did this happen, do you remember?
CALLER: No. It’s six months ago, at least. Maybe last summer.
RUSH: When did the trial start?
CALLER: Two or three days ago. It’s a bench trial. It’s not going before a jury, but it is a bench trial before a judge in Markham, Illinois. There’s a courthouse in Markham, Illinois, and the local press is covering it, it’s in the papers.
RUSH: Right, the cop’s name, I’ve it looked this up, the cop’s name is Craig Taylor?
CALLER: Yeah, 43-year-old black cop.
RUSH: Right. He’s claiming he feared for his life.
CALLER: Well, a little caveat to this, Rush. I am a retired police officer, 29 years.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: So I know a little bit what I’m talking about here, but for the life of me, I don’t understand how this happened. But, you know, they’re defending themselves, the police department. And after he shot him at close range, closer than the beanbag shotgun company allowed, the guy bled out. He bled out in a hospital.
RUSH: That’s unfortunate. So now what you’re thinking is, well, in this exact reversal, we have a white cop shooting a young African-American and the whole world descends on the white cop and demands that — and you’re saying no attention is being paid to this at all, and you’re saying there’s a little hypocrisy going on here?
CALLER: Oh, there’s lot of hypocrisy going on, yes, sir, there is.
RUSH: You’re a former cop.
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: Wouldn’t it be consistent, therefore, to defend the cop’s actions? I mean, that’s what’s happened here. In all of these incidents, in Ferguson, Missouri, in Staten Island, the law enforcement crowd, both — you know, official city, law enforcement, and the public who defends law enforcement, wouldn’t it be consistent here to support the police officer in this situation, if you’re gonna —
CALLER: Well, if you read the facts of the case, which are in the paper every day, no, I can’t defend the black cop. I don’t understand how this happened. I don’t get it.
RUSH: Okay, did the white 95-year-old nursing home resident, did he raise his hands and say “Don’t shoot”?
CALLER: (laughing) No. He was delirious from a urinary tract infection, so they called the ambulance. The ambulance crew couldn’t deal with him, and then they called the police. The Tasers failed to fire or something like that, and then he raised his hand and they shot him.
RUSH: Now, what I can’t get my mind around here is you have to Taser a 95-year-old man with a cane. How do you not —
CALLER: Rush, they also had a police shield with ’em, and why they couldn’t just attack him with the police shield, pin him against the wall and disarm him from whatever he had.
RUSH: Okay, so you are not inclined to support the officer here. Why? You think excessive force was used unnecessarily?
CALLER: I really do. I really do.
RUSH: Do you also believe that because of the racial aspect, that the police officer is being given the benefit of the doubt here that he would not otherwise get?
CALLER: I don’t know about the race factor, if they’re going easy on him for that. Maybe not. But still in all, total opposite, black cop kills a 95-year-old World War II vet in a nursing home.
RUSH: And nobody’s mad about it.
CALLER: There’s nothing. Where’s Reverend Al?
RUSH: Well, Reverend Al is —
CALLER: Maybe he would come here and support the black cop.
RUSH: No. No. The choice of Hollywood or River Grove, Illinois, where are you gonna go?
CALLER: (laughing) Hollywood.
RUSH: Absolutely right. Al Sharpton has got a brand-new mission, and that is may the best Caucasian win in the Academy Awards. There aren’t any African-American Oscar nominees. It’s never happened before. They’re livid. They are livid. This is liberal on liberal, now. This is liberal on liberal crime. This is gonna be great to watch. This is the left battling the left.
There ain’t any conservatives in Hollywood. There might be a couple of voters, but the Academy, Hollywood, is all liberal, and there is not a single African-American nominee that counts. This is gonna be fun to witness. I’m sorry, but this cop, he’s gonna have to settle for whoever Sharpton might have signed from the Junior League, if anybody. But your point is that there’s no media attention to this at all.
CALLER: Not nationally at all, no.
RUSH: Yeah. And you think there should be, just in a sense of fairness, you think, probably.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: All right, well, I appreciate the call. Thank you much, Tim, very much.
Related Links