Mediaite – by Matt WilsteinThis week, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar relieved Officer Dan Page of his duty after video emerged of him making an hour-long speech full of hateful remarks directed towards African-Americans, women and President Barack Obama among others. Page also happened to be the officer who was caught on camera physically pushing CNN’s Don Lemon during a live report on the Ferguson protests.
On Friday, Lemon said he personally sent a link of Page’s speech to Chief Belmar, who immediately responded to agreed to discuss it with the host. “As police chief, it’s embarrassing when you find out about stuff like this,” Belmar told Lemon, noting that the video has been on YouTube since April. Because he doesn’t personally use social media, he said these things can be “difficult to unearth at times.”
Asked if Page’s comments adhere to his department’s code of conduct, Belmar said, “Not at all. They are not indicative of the St. Louis County police department, they’re not indicative of the officers that he works beside, and frankly, he’s let them down.”
Belmar apologized to anyone in the community who was offended by Page’s remarks.
Watch video below, via CNN:
[Photo via screengrab]
– –
>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/st-louis-police-chief-apologizes-for-officers-embarrassing-comments/
“As police chief, it’s embarrassing when you find out about stuff like this,” Belmar told Lemon,…”
No, you mean it’s embarrassing when the PUBLIC finds out about “stuff like this”.
Check out this link for the 2nd and 3rd videos in this story (couldn’t get the embed codes for posting here):
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/st-louis-police-chief-apologizes-for-officers-embarrassing-comments/
Sorry, Angel, can’t do videos right now. I’m on that crappy Wi-Fi. 🙁
The 2nd one is the “Rant”, the 3rd is “additional remarks” by the chief.
Here is the “Rant” video: