News 12 reporter Sean Bergin has been suspended after he argued on the air that the “anti-cop mentality that has so contaminated America’s inner cities” is largely the result of “young black men growing up without fathers.”
Sean Bergin (Twitter)
A source with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed to The Blaze on Monday that Bergin has, in fact, been suspended over his remarks about the black community and may end up being fired. The source said Bergin was asked not to come in Monday and Tuesday as the news station figures out how to handle the situation.
News 12, a network of news stations serving various areas mostly in New York and New Jersey, did not return messages left by The Blaze on Monday.
Here’s what Bergin said on the air:
“We were besieged, flooded with calls from police officers furious that we would give media coverage to the life of a cop killer. It’s understandable. We decided to air it because it’s important to shine a light on the anti-cop mentality that has so contaminated America’s inner cities. This same, sick, perverse line of thinking is evident from Jersey City, to Newark and Patterson to Trenton.”
“It has made the police officer’s job impossible and it has got to stop. The underlying cause of all of this, of course: young black men growing up without fathers. Unfortunately, no one in the news media has the courage to touch that subject.”
News 12 New Jersey seemingly scrubbed the news report containing Bergin’s commentary from its website — and the outrage expressed by some was apparently enough to warrant disciplinary action.
Watch the unedited TV news segment below, which includes Bergin’s commentary on the black community:
Bergin was reacting to the tragic shooting of Jersey City police officer Melvin Santiago (seen in image below), who was shot in the head as he sat in his patrol car with a fellow officer at around 4 a.m. on Sunday. Authorities believe the suspect, identified as 27-year-old Lawrence Campbell, planned on murdering police officers that morning.
Lawrence reportedly entered a Jersey City Walgreens armed with a knife and assaulted an armed security guard, stealing his gun. He then apparently waited for police to arrive and proceeded to murder an officer in cold blood.
The suspect later told a witness to “watch the news” because he was “going to be famous,” according to the Jersey City mayor’s office.
When Lawrence later fired at a second police car, another officer returned fire and fatally shot the suspect.
News 12 New Jersey later interviewed the cop killer’s wife, who showed very little sympathy for the police officer who her husband killed in cold blood. She also reportedly said her deceased husband should have killed even more police officers.
The widow set up a makeshift street memorial, where she told Bergin, “Sorry for the officer’s family or whatever, but at the end of the day he’s got family too.”
Despite that I largely agree with Bergin's views on the subject, I think he was wrong in the way he mixed news with editorial opinion. He could have concluded the news portion, then had a full-screen graphic saying "EDITORIAL", and then stated his views without mixing the two. He also didn't cite any sources or statistics (as I have here, many times) to support his argument.
And he seemed to know in advance that his employers would have a problem with it, and didn't make an effort to present these facts in a way that would conform to what he knew his employers would consider crossing the line. Quite the opposite, his own words reveal he did it in open defiance. While I agree with the thrust of what was said, the way he presented it was unprofessional.
