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City Councilman President Pro Tem George Cushingberry took a shot at Fox2's M.L. Elrick on Facebook.
"If a 19 year old Black Male grabbed an officer's uniform like ML Elrick did to Sgt. Mitchell, they would be in jail right now," Cushingberry wrote on Wednesday night.
The remark was in reference to an incident on Tuesday in which two Detroit cops, Sgt. William Carter and Sgt. Robert Mitchell, essentially ran interference for Cushingberry and shoved Elrick up against the wall so he couldn't confront the city council member as he entered the room for a council meeting. Cushingberry wrote:
"I sincerely hope that the Board of Police Commissioners reinstate and exonerate Sgt. William Carter & Sgt. Robert Mitchell. Sgt. Mitchell is a calm man and serves the people very well as Head of Security of the EPU."
The confrontation was filmed by Fox 2, and shows Elrick afterwards confronting one of the officers, telling him that he should know better than to do something like that.
Council President Pro Tem George Cushingberry (Facebook photo)
Fox 2 reported Wednesday that Police Chief James Craig called for an internal probe. But Craig didn't seem too shaken by the matter and said he didn't think excessive force was used.
On Fox 2, the conversation between Elrick and Craig went like this:
ELRICK: When you saw that video that was your first thought?
CHIEF CRAIG: I looked at it and I could see that there was a force incident. I recognize that, but what took us to the point of using force?
ELRICK: Frankly, the reason why there's no more video before that is we had no idea that was going to happen. If we thought that was going to happen we'd have had cameras rolling when we entered the building.
CHIEF CRAIG: Understand.
ELRICK: Is there any situation that would justify use of force to prevent someone from asking a question of an elected official in this city?
CHIEF CRAIG: If you're just simply using that scenario, I would say to you, no, there shouldn't be any force used.
On Wednesday on Facebook, Elrick wrote:
With all this debate about what happened last night, I'm wondering if anyone else noticed that the first thing I said was "Excuse me" -- even before I said "Councilman..." as I'm getting jacked up against a wall. Does that sound like a mad dog reporter to you?
