The James O’Keefe Scandal Gets Worse: Ex-Staffer Says He Crossed a Line With Vile ‘Kill Cops’ Stunt
I have to confess that I’m totally unsurprised by the latest news on James O’Keefe’s creepy subterfuge: Ex-Staffer Slams James O’Keefe: He Crossed a Line With Vile ‘Kill Cops’ Stunt.
Richard Valdes, the former director of special operations for O’Keefe’s organization Project Veritas, told TPM on Thursday that the guerrilla filmmaker wanted an undercover operative to infiltrate a rally held by the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network in mid-January. At the time, Black Lives Matter demonstrators were still taking to the streets of New York City to protest a grand jury’s decision not to indict an NYPD officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner.
Valdes said O’Keefe dictated a script to him and then told him to email it to the operative for use at the rally. Here’s the full text of that script, according to emails provided to TPM by Valdes’ attorney:
As a minority and a Muslim, I know what it’s like when the police treat me unfairly. They have even searched my little daughter’s body. Can you believe that? Do you know what it’s like to have your rights violated because of the color of your skin or because of your name? -PAUSE-
Sometimes, I wish I could just kill some of these cops. Don’t you just wish we could have one of the cops right here in the middle of our group? -PAUSE-
What would you do if we could get Officer Pantoleo (who killed Eric Garner) right here in this crowd? What would you do to him?
In a Jan. 9 email addressed to Valdes, O’Keefe, and other top Project Veritas employees, the undercover operative, Mohammed Alhomsi, apparently declined to carry out the assignment. The email cited both legal concerns and concerns about the language of the script in turning down the project. That email was among those provided to TPM by Valdes’s attorney.