Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), during a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives on Thursday, praised a Black Lives Matter activist who previously called for the death of police officers.
The New York Post reported that Bush brought up Palestinian-American activist Bassem Masri, who, after the 2014 police shooting of Ferguson, Missouri, teenager Michael Brown Jr., would stream himself berating police officers outside the Ferguson Police Department as part of protests.
“I’m praying for your death and your death and your death and your death,” he reportedly said in one video, according to the Post.
Masri also tweeted incendiary comments regarding police officers, including “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon,” which was repeated as a chant by other protesters. Several police officers have been killed following anti-police rhetoric from Black Lives Matter and supportive politicians.
Masri died in 2018, before the most recent wave of Black Lives Matter riots.
Bush mentioned Masri in a speech comparing the Black Lives Matter movement to the current conflict in the West Bank.
“As a Palestinian, he was ready to resist, to rebel, to rise up with us as our St. Louis community mourned Mike Brown, Jr.’s state sanctioned murder, and as we demanded an end to the militarized police occupation of our communities,” Bush said Thursday, according to Fox News. “Palestinians know what state violence, militarized policing, and occupation of their communities look like.”
“So, when heavily militarized police forces showed up in Ferguson in 2014, Bassem and so many others of our St. Louis Palestinian community, our Palestinian siblings showed up too,” Bush continued.
On Twitter, Bush further compared Black Lives Matter to the current conflict in the West Bank.
“The fight for Black lives and the fight for Palestinian liberation are interconnected. We oppose our money going to fund militarized policing, occupation, and systems of violent oppression and trauma. We are anti-war. We are anti-occupation. And we are anti-apartheid. Period,” she wrote, ignoring the role the terrorist group Hamas and Palestinian authorities have played in the conflict.
This happens every time a conflict between Israel and Palestine arises. Politicians like Bush blame Israel and portray Palestinians as nothing but victims. Hamas and Palestinian authorities hide weapons in civilian areas, killing civilians when they are launched. Meanwhile, Israel goes out of its way to announce its attacks to give civilians time to evacuate in order to minimize casualties.
Yet, politicians like Bush insist Israel is in the wrong.
In addition to wishing death upon cops, Masri also yelled at a police officer: “Coward straight pig out here b—! You gotta go. Your life is in danger homie” and asked, “What happens when we take your gun?”
Masri also insisted that, because he and others were angry, police should automatically accept they are in the wrong. He told a local Fox affiliate, “If the citizen is pissed, you don’t look at the citizen and say ‘oh he’s bad, he’s a terrorist’ you look at the police and say ‘how come this man is mad at y’all’.”