Black Lives Matter leader DeRay Mckesson stood by controversial tweets he sent about the police during an interview Monday on CNN.
McKesson first harshly criticized former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who called the Black Lives Matter movement racist on Sunday. CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield then confronted McKesson about incendiary statements he has written about police, which included saying they "engaged in ethnic cleansing."
This "feared for my life" language is perhaps the new execution motto of America's largest gang, the police.
— deray mckesson (@deray) April 3, 2015
The police are killing people. Officer Friendly is akin to the myth of the American Dream -- seductive but a deadly illusion nonetheless.
— deray mckesson (@deray) April 25, 2015
The police are engaged in ethnic cleansing. America.
— deray mckesson (@deray) May 24, 2015
"That’s pretty strong rhetoric coming from you as well," Banfield said after reading out the tweets. "Do you think it’s helpful, or do you regret any of those words?"
"I remember being a kid growing up and learning about Officer Friendly as somebody who was always there to protect me, and as an adult what I’ve seen is Officer Friendly was not there to protect Tamir [Rice], was not there to protect Mike Brown, Alton Sterling," McKesson said, listing black men who have been fatally shot by police officers. "So that is a myth, and we want to live in a world where that doesn’t have to be mythical, but the world we live in right now, that’s just not true."
Mckesson added his "ethnic cleansing" remark had to do with black people being disproportionately killed by police.
"We have to be honest about the racial undertone and the racist undertone that undergirds so much of these actions, and we are not afraid to say those things in public," he said. "It is the truth behind the protests."