Not the organized mob (that we know of), but rather angry mobs. While discussing the fruitlessness of violent mob tactics, Jeffy revealed his mother-in-law was the victim of an angry mob after the MLK assassination, describing a horrifying subway ride that resulted in a severe beating just because she was white.
GLENN: Okay. Let's talk a little bit about the riots.
PAT: They're blocking bridges. They're stopping people from going to work. This is starting to spread all over the country. Second night of protests.
GLENN: It's all right. This is Occupy Wall Street 2.
PAT: It is.
GLENN: That's all this is. They think they have a chance. America is not going to be with these radicals. They're not going to do it.
PAT: I hope that's true.
GLENN: It is.
PAT: I hope that the people who are protesting realize that this time, there's almost — there's bipartisan support here. There's biracial support here.
GLENN: It's important to say, we don't know what happened in the grand jury room.
PAT: They said it a hundred times yesterday.
GLENN: We don't know what happened in the grand jury room, and so you know, I don't know what they were instructed that they had to pay attention to. I don't know what the evidence was. I wasn't there. But that's — what I said yesterday is I would like to see — I mean, we need transparency here. They need to say — to the to the American people, what — why the grand jury didn't think this was wrong.
PAT: And they need to do that because we saw what happened with our own eyes.
GLENN: Right.
PAT: So —
GLENN: So it's they got it wrong and the system needs to be fixed or we don't know something that they know. Either way, we need to know that. When it comes to Michael Brown, we know that there were black eyewitnesses that did not come out in front of the American people because they were afraid for their own life and protection. But they went and they testified that, yes, the cop was right. And so that's what really set the Michael Brown thing up, was the testimony of African-Americans who went into the grand jury and said, no, Michael Brown was trying to harm the police officer. It was self-defense and it was — it was a righteous shooting. That wasn't — they weren't out in front of the press because they were afraid. But at least we know that. Here, we don't have anything but the videotape that shows this — these cops looking like they're out of control. So it's important, but you'll never get this, because de Blasio wants this kind of action on the street. So you're never going to get this. But it's important for the American people to see what happened. How was justice served in this? Tell us why that decision was made. It's important.
PAT: I think it is. You know, and here's the case where we agree with the sentiment. It looks to us to be a miscarriage of justice. But there's a right way to go about it and a wrong way to go about it and I think to punish commuters on their way to or from work is the wrong work.
GLENN: It's the wrong way.
PAT: It's just going piss people off.
GLENN: When you go back and look at the riots, the workers' world riots in the 1930s and you will see this is exactly the same kind of stuff with FDR. They set Oakland on fire. They set several cities on fire. They were beating people in the streets. I mean, it was bad. This has happened before.
JEFFY: Oh, my gosh, when you talk about knowing your family history and what happened, over Thanksgiving I learned something new about my mother-in-law that I never knew before. She was here fresh in the United States from Ecuador in New York City on a subway the day of Martin Luther King —
GLENN: Hold on.
PAT: There's an important element here.
GLENN: Please tell me that somehow or another your family members here illegally and there's someway we can get you deported.
JEFFY: So anyway, the night that Martin Luther King was assassinated, she's on a subway and she was beaten almost to death for being — looking white. And the violence was just there. And a person who tried to break it up was eventually stabbed by this crowd and that was just for being on the subway and looking white.
PAT: Did he survive?
JEFFY: No, I don't think he did. She wasn't sure. She said she didn't think he didn't make it and she almost didn't make it. But at first —
GLENN: It meant a lot to her that somebody saved her life and died for her.
PAT: That's the nice way to turn this on —
GLENN: Right.
PAT: On the Jeffy clan.
GLENN: Meant so much she didn't even check to see if the guy lived.
PAT: Here he is making —
(overlapping speakers).
JEFFY: No, no.
GLENN: You're right. You're right. Those happen so rarely.
PAT: They happen so rarely.
GLENN: I didn't mean to — go ahead.
PAT: Go ahead.
GLENN: That is your moment to shine.
JEFFY: We're long gone done now.
GLENN: No, go ahead. Somebody in your family that people wanted to beat to death. What a surprise.
(laughing).
JEFFY: She wasn't part of my family then. I went out looking for people like that.
GLENN: They knew. Your daughter is going to marry somebody in the future and I know it and I got to beat you to death. So that's amazing. That's amazing.
PAT: Yeah, it is.
JEFFY: But it's just random. Doesn't matter. So that's when you stop traffic, you make people mad.
PAT: And it doesn't help the cause.
JEFFY: It doesn't help anything.
GLENN: This is what happens — honestly, this is the kind of stuff that happened with Gandhi.
PAT: And you've said it a million times, this is why MLK won because it was peaceful.
GLENN: And it's why Gandhi won. It's important to understand, Gandhi did not win because he was doing a hunger strike against England or against the oppressors. He didn't. He did a hunger strike on his own people. You want violence? You want to beat people in the streets? You want to bring a gun? You want to burn something down? I'm not with you. And he was so beloved. He said I will starve to death — I will not eat. I will starve to death before I will stand with you. And if you decide to disarm, if you decide to be peaceful, I'll eat. I'll have water. But until that time, no. Now, where is Jessie Jackson? Where is Al Sharpton? Can you imagine if anybody on that side would have so much credibility that they would stand and up say, until you come to the table, I will not eat. Not preaching — Gandhi was not preaching to the man. He was preaching to the people on the streets. That's the difference. That's the difference.
