Maher Panel Rips Fox’s ‘Concern-Trolling’ On Black Crime, Jay Z Battles Barney Frank Over Stop-And-Frisk

Bill Maher found it very strange that Republicans are all of a sudden so concerned about black-on-black crime and violence in Chicago. He hit Fox News in particular for carrying this talking point, which Business Insider’s Josh Barro described as “concern-trolling” from the right. The discussion then turned to police actions in black communities, and Barney Frank clashed with artist Jay Z over whether black communities need or want more police presence.

Frank said the GOP does a disservice by cutting budgets that leads to police forces getting cut, while Jay Z argued the real problem is social and economic imbalance, “a problem that no amount of police can solve.” Occupy activist Alexis Goldstein brought up stop-and-frisk, but Frank argued that while it may be abusive, black people want more and better policing.

Jay Z shot back, “More jobs would be better than police.” He tussled with Frank for a while, only for Goldstein to jump in to decry “institutionalized racism” in the police and reminding the audience about police crackdowns on OWS and no one “stopping and frisking Wall Street bankers.”

Maher brought up the Boston bombing to question the “police state,” saying that there was practically an army tracking down the bombers and the city was basically shut down.

Watch the video below, via HBO:

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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