A guest apparently got tired of talking about the death of Eric Garner–and the resulting protests over a grand jury’s decision not to indict a New York City police officer in the case–and walked out during Thursday night’s “Inside Story” on Al Jazeera America.
Martin Prieb, an author and former Chicago police officer had expressed displeasure from the very start of his interview with AJAM’s Ray Suarez, describing the show’s set-up piece as slanted. “I’ve never heard anything so biased and anti-police.”
Part of a panel that included two other guests, Prieb defended the actions of officers in the Garner case, and said the grand jury’s decision was correct. He accused news media and “a minority of people in the country” of trying “to stir up anti-police hysteria.”
During a commercial break, Prieb got up and left. The show’s producers say Prieb didn’t say a word, and did not answer his cell phone when they tried to reach him. When the show resumed, they showed an empty chair. Suarez told viewers it seemed Preib “decided he could no longer take the intense questioning and simply got up and walked away.”