\u201cFox & Friends\u201d co-host Brian Kilmeade apologized Sunday for remarks he made last week that suggested using involuntary lethal injections to get mentally ill homeless people off the streets.<\/p>\n
Kilmeade\u2019s comments came during a discussion last Wednesday on \u201cFox & Friends\u201d about the Aug. 22 stabbing death of a 23-year Ukranian refugee, Iryna Zarutska, on a light rail train in Charlotte, N.C. Zarutska\u2019s suspected killer, DeCarlos Brown Jr., is a homeless man with a long criminal record and is a paranoid schizophrenic, according to his family.<\/p>\n
The attack on Zarutska was captured on security cameras and circulated widely online. The incident has sparked a national debate on public safety policy and criminal sentencing. The topic led \u201cFox & Friends\u201d co-host Laurence Jones to say that billions of dollars have been spent on programs to care for the homeless and mentally ill but many of those afflicted resist help.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of them don\u2019t want to take the programs,\u201d Jones said. \u201cA lot of them don\u2019t want to get the help that is necessary. You can\u2019t give them the choice. Either you take the resources that we\u2019re going to give you, or you decide that you\u2019ve got to be locked up in jail.\u201d Kilmeade added: \u201cOr involuntary lethal injection or something \u2014 just kill \u2018em.\u201d<\/p>\n
A clip of Kilmeade\u2019s remarks started to circulate widely on X on Saturday. \u201cI apologize for that extremely callous remark,\u201d Kilmeade said during Sunday\u2019s edition of the morning program. \u201cI am obviously aware that not all mentally ill, homeless people act as the perpetrator did in North Carolina and that so many homeless people deserve our empathy and compassion.\u201d Many online commentators pointed out that Kilmeade\u2019s comments evoked the extermination of mentally ill and disabled people that was authorized by Adolf Hitler in 1939. The German chancellor\u2019s euthanasia program killed more than 250,000 people ahead of the Holocaust.<\/p>\n
For now, Kilmeade has avoided the fate of political analyst Matthew Dowd, who lost his contributor role at MSNBC after commenting on the Wednesday shooting death of right wing political activist Charlie Kirk. Dowd told MSNBC anchor Katy Tur that \u201chateful thoughts lead to hateful words which then lead to hateful actions.\u201d Dowd, once a political strategist for President George W. Bush, described Kirk as a divisive figure \u201cwho is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups.\u201d The angry reaction on social media was immediate after Dowd\u2019s comments suggested that Kirk\u2019s history of incendiary remarks led to the shooting. Rebecca Kutler, president of MSNBC, issued an apology and cut ties with Dowd. Dowd also apologized in a post on BlueSky. \u201cI in no way intended intended to blame Kirk for this horrendous attack,\u201d he said. The top executives at MSNBC parent Comcast sent a company-wide memo Friday citing Dowd\u2019s firing and told employees \u201cwe need to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The remarks made by Brian Kilmeade and the subsequent apology highlight the sensitivity and complexity of discussing mental health, homelessness, and public safety. It emphasizes the need for thoughtful and compassionate dialogue, especially from public figures, to avoid perpetuating harm or stigma against vulnerable populations.<\/p>\n
Introduction to the Controversy \u201cFox & Friends\u201d co-host Brian Kilmeade apologized Sunday for remarks he made last week that suggested using involuntary lethal injections to get mentally ill homeless people off the streets. Background to the Comments Kilmeade\u2019s comments came during a discussion last Wednesday on \u201cFox & Friends\u201d about the Aug. 22 stabbing death […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21362","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/b270501\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5354x2811+0+238\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F32%2F2c%2Fa87190ff45288e18661653cf7cec%2Fap18017652575048.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21362"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21365,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21362\/revisions\/21365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}