Hot 97's Peter Rosenberg Freaked Out When a Cop Called in About Alton Sterling's Shooting

During a Wednesday segment of Ebro in the Morning, Hot 97 host Peter Rosenberg delivered an epic, cathartic rant against police officers who stand by in silent solidarity with their own amid the widespread brutality perpetuated against minorities in America.

The trouble began after Rosenberg accepted a call from an officer who had phoned in to discuss the death of Alton Sterling, the 37-year-old black father shot at close range by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

"As an officer yourself, it looks bad though, no?" Rosenberg asks. When the caller refuses to concede that the officer had been in the wrong, the rant that Rosenberg spews out might as well have come straight from the hearts and minds of everyone in the United States who's sick of seeing rampant police brutality levied against minorities without consequence.

"Can you say the words 'It looks bad?'" Rosenberg yells. "I have to say this, this is the problem I have with police officers — and no disrespect to you — ya'll don't ever want to point at someone else and say, 'you can't do your job well.'"

Rosenberg argues that if a radio personality were to say something egregious or irresponsible on-air, he would be the first to call them out for being bad at their job. But when it comes to police officers, he says, none are willing to step up to the plate and admit it when one of their own makes a mistake.

"So that's the reason that the public thinks all of you are bad: Because you won't ever call someone out and say 'they murdered someone in cold blood, it happened again.' And until you guys start taking responsibility for your own, people in the street are going to be upset instead."

Rosenberg goes on to call for action, saying that if police were the ones leading the charge against corruption among their ranks, the public might not harbor such distrust for an institution meant to protect them.

"How about instead of people rioting, police officers get out in front of it themselves, and you guys are the first ones on the front lines. That's what should happen instead of you struggling to say, 'well I don't know, it could be.' They murdered that man. We just saw it."

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