Mike Ditka Weighs In On Ferguson, With Predictable Results
By Chuck Sudo in News on Dec 3, 2014 4:50PM
Whenever the Bears suck (which has been often this season) we can always count on Mike Ditka to give us a sound bite on a topic that will have fans who still have 1985 Bears posters taped to the walls of their basements.
Ditka, who previously listed his greatest regret as not stopping Barack Obama’s ascendancy to the Presidency when he had a chance, spoke with the Sun-Times about the “hands up don’t shoot” protest by some St. Louis Rams players Sunday. If you’re familiar with Ditka’s politics you already know he isn’t sympathetic to Michael Brown.
“It’s a shame this thing has come to this,” Ditka told the Chicago Sun-Times for his weekly feature column. “The shame of it is, I’m not sure they care about Michael Brown or anything else. This was a reason to protest and to go out and loot. Is this the way to celebrate the memory of Michael Brown? Is this an excuse to be lawless? Somebody has to tell me that. I don’t understand it. I understand what the Rams’ take on this was. I’m embarrassed for the players more than anything. They want to take a political stand on this? Well, there are a lot of other things that have happened in our society that people have not stood up and disagreed about."“I wasn’t in Ferguson. I don’t know exactly what happened. But I know one thing: If we dismantle and limit the power of our policemen any more than we have already, then we’re going to have a lot of problems in this country."
“What do you do if someone pulls a gun on you or is robbing a store and you stop them? I don’t want to hear about this hands-up crap. That’s not what happened. I don’t know exactly what did happen, but I know that’s not what happened. This policeman’s life is ruined. Why? Because we have to break somebody down. Because we have to even out the game. I don’t know. I don’t get it. Maybe I’m just old fashioned.”
The contradictions are astounding. First, there’s the obvious “I don’t know exactly what did happen, but I know that’s not what happened” line. Then there’s Ditka’s complaint we have to respect law enforcement’s authoritah when you know in the same breath he would bitch about Obama being a Kenyan, Muslim Manchurian candidate who doesn’t respect the Constitution and the overreach of government. It’s been hard trying to reconcile Ditka the caricature with Ditka the man over the past 30 years and this doesn’t help matters.