Fox News' Elisabeth Hasselbeck: Sandra Bland Could Have Used Cigarette As A Weapon

I kid you not. Hasselbeck actually said this in all seriousness. This is not The Onion.

Speaking to former New York Police Department officer John Raffery, Fox News personality Elisabeth Hasselbeck suggested that the police officer caught on dash cam video asked Sandra Bland to exit her car because he was afraid Bland would wield her cigarette as a weapon.

Via Raw Story:

Rafferty said that Trooper Brian Encinia was placed on administrative duty by his department. They acknowledged that the officer stepped over the line in his violent arrest of Bland, who had merely changed lanes without using a signal.

“It appears, looking at this, because she didn’t put out the cigarette next thing he knows, he’s asking the person to step out of the vehicle,” Rafferty said about Encinia. “You can’t take it personal. It’s the job.”

“But, what if, I mean, there are times, I’m sure, someone has, in the history of this land, used a cigarette against a police officer,” said Hasselbeck, “maybe chucked it at him, pushed it at him.”