The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, founder of the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny, says he is sickened, but not surprised, by President Barack Obama's comparison between a father who's afraid his son can't walk at home at night without being harassed by police and the wife of a cop afraid he won't come home alive.
"I wasn't surprised that at Barack Obama saying that because over the last year or so, he has been creating an environment that's unsafe for police officers around the country," Peterson, commenting on Obama's State of the Union address, said Wednesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
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"When he made that statement about a father being afraid for his son, I'm sure he was referring to Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York, who has a half-black son. The mayor said he teaches his son how to deal with police officers, implying [they're] racist.
"Obama has created an environment between the races in this country and the police officers that is bad for all of us. To imply that officers are racist against black Americans simply because they are black, is absolutely wrong and is evil."
Peterson — host of the syndicated radio program, "The Jesse Peterson Show" — reiterated that in the case of Michael Brown, the black teen shot dead by a white police officer in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, it was Brown who was at fault.
"Michael Brown … decided the day that he [would] rob a convenience store. And when he decided to attack a cop, he made his mind up that he was ready to die," Peterson said.
"Michael did that because he was a thug, not some little innocent kid tiptoeing through the tulips. Obama should be ashamed of himself not being honest about what really happened."
Peterson said because many African-American children are being raised without the benefit of two parents at home, they don't respect parental authority or the authority of their teachers or other adults in the neighborhood.
"Now, the president of the United States, Eric Holder and the so-called civil rights leaders are telling them you don't really have to respect the authority of police officers because they are against you simply because of your color," Peterson said.
"Just think about the type of environment that is going to create. These officers are getting up every morning and night — men and women, leaving their families, going to these bad neighborhoods — trying to protect the good from the bad.
"[That's] while they have the president of the United States of America and the mayor of New York turning on them [which] is mind blowing."
Peterson's group, founded in 1990, is one of the nation's most respected family and youth building organizations in the United States.
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