Democratic New York Congressman Charles Rangel made some shocking statements when he related his time in the U.S. Army during the Korean War to a discussion about the NYPD officers' decision to turn their backs on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio at the funerals of two slain officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, in recent weeks.
While serving as a staff sergeant in Korea, Rangel never became upset about seeing dead soldiers unless they "looked like me," he said during an appearance on Monday's "The Ed Show" on MSNBC. It was an attempt to suggest that black policemen should speak out against the recent ongoing police violence, according to The Daily Caller.
"I was in combat and I'm telling you, I saw more dead people," he said. "But I never was moved until I saw dead people that looked like me in my uniform. And it does make a difference."
His comments come in the wake of the nationwide protests following the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO., by a white police officer, and the chokehold death of a black man, Eric Garner, by a white officer in Staten Island, NY, according to Newsmax.
Rangel emphasized his experience to call on black policemen to speak out about police violence.
"It's awkward, because no one wants to be in the position that you're not with your colleagues, right or wrong," Rangel said. "But when the moral issue raises it beyond just being right, and you have so much love and respect for the job that you have assumed you're not going to allow a handful of people who are blinded by hate to spoil the reputation."
"So, yes, the blue wall of silence has kept communities and minority communities apart for so long, so that even minority policemen don't want to break that silence. And it has to be done," he added.
