A former Jacksonville, Florida sheriff is under scrutiny for calling the Black Lives Matter movement a hate group this week.
According to News4Jax, former Sheriff John Rutherford defended his past statements calling the BLM movement a hate group during a 4th Congressional District televised debate on Aug. 18.
The former top cop hopes to fill that seat by attacking the activist movement head on.
“… I said was they should be labeled a hate group,” Rutherford says in the clip. “That’s exactly what I said. This group, if you look at the rhetoric that’s coming out, marching down the streets of New York talking about frying police officers like pigs in a blanket … And then a couple weeks later, we have a couple of police officers murdered, sitting in their squad car? Yes, they should be labeled a hate group.”
Rutherford adds that the group inspires violence instead of carrying it out themselves.
“Now, they may not go out and commit the violence themselves, but they certainly use their rhetoric to light the fuse.”
Nevertheless, Jacksonville ministers and community leaders called out Rutherford for attempting to discredit the BLM movement.
“… I know these people are not a hate group,” Pastor Frederick Newbill says in an Aug. 18 news conference. ” He’s never had police brutality. He’s never had the things that young African-Americans have in our community. He’s not speaking on my list, he’s just trying to get elected.”
