Deray Mckesson, better known as Deray, has been one of the most prominent young Black activists of the times. The Baltimore native was a host on CNN where host Wolf Blitzer attempted to get his guest to decry the actions of the city’s residents over the past two days and got a rude awakening.
The conversation opened up calmly enough, with Blitzer asking McKesson about the ongoing situation regarding the Freddie Gray police custody death protests happening across the Maryland city. As he has done so with Ferguson and other matters nationwide, McKesson shared with Blitzer that he was in Baltimore giving support to the growing movement of protesters who are fighting back against mistreatment from the police.
Blitzer flipped the script in asking McKesson if he wanted the protests to be peaceful, which has not been the focus of the massive media presence in the city. McKesson countered by saying, “the people who have been the most violent since August is the police.”
McKesson added, “When you think about the 300 people that have been killed this year alone by police, that is violence. There’s been property damage that has been pretty unfortunate for just the past couple of days, but there have been many days of peaceful protests here in Baltimore and in places all across the country.”
Blitzer wasn’t satisfied with that accurate assessment and dug in further, and even tried to force Deray into agreeing with his criticism of the outbursts that took place on Monday and comparing those actions to Martin Luther King Jr.’s activism. Mckesson countered in such an eloquent way that words barely do it justice.
“You are making a comparison,” McKesson said. “You are suggesting this idea that broken windows are worse than broken spines, right? Freddie Gray will never be back. Those windows will.”
Watch more of the exchange between Deray McKesson and CNN’s Wolf Blitzer below.
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Photo: YouTube/Raw Story
