Mike Huckabee believes that America doesn’t have a problem with overzealous cops, but with poorly raised children who perpetuate violence.
“The problem in America with crime is not that we have too many police officers, it’s that we have too few fathers who are raising their kids to respect authority and understand how this country works,” Huckabee said while speaking at the National Sheriffs’ Association Conference in Baltimore.
Huckabee’s remarks come after racially motivated murders in Charleston, S.C. and rioting in Baltimore in response to Freddie Gray’s death while in police custody.
The Republican hopeful stated that in Baltimore just 16 percent of children between 15-17 are raised in an intact family. After apologizing for being “not politically correct,” Huckabee explained that studies show that youth who grow up in dysfunctional homes are three times as likely to commit crimes.
“My parents taught me if the police officer says stop you don’t ask ‘why.’ You don’t argue with the police officer,” Huckabee stated. “The time and place to do it is if you think you have a case and you take it to court, but by golly, but out on the street he’s boss and you’re not. ”
The GOP hopeful rallied the crowd behind his strong support of the Second Amendment, telling them that both he and his wife hold licenses to carry to protect themselves from danger.
“I’ll still call 911 [if someone breaks into my house],” Huckabee said, “but I’ll be calling them to say where to pick up the carcass of the idiot who tried to break into my home a 2 in the morning.”
