Eugene O’Donnell, a former NYPD officer and a prosecutor in Brooklyn and Queens, felt the comment missed the point.
But O’Donnell, who now teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said Davis shouldn’t have been punished. “I would defend her right to say whatever she wants to say,” he said.
“If she was the only person who thought this, that would be one thing, but sadly she is expressing a mainstream opinion that is disconnected from reality.”
He argued that the bigger issue was gun violence in communities.
“She at a health care institution should know,” O’Donnell said, “That many of the people being brought into hospitals in New Jersey with gunshot wounds are not wounded by police officers.”
“Very little of the lethal gun violence in New Jersey is caused by the police,” he added later.