Conservative talk radio host Michael Berry can be heard comparing teens who attended a now infamous pool party last week in McKinney, Texas, to “jungle animals,” in audio from his Monday show posted online by Media Matters.
The party gained national exposure after footage went viral showing a white police officer confronting attendees, many of whom were black, and wrestling a 15-year-old black girl in a bikini to the ground, as well as drawing his gun. McKinney Police Chief Greg Conley said officers who arrived on the scene “encountered a large crowd that refused to comply with police commands.” According to Conley, 12 officers in total arrived on the scene and there were no official reports of injuries.
“You’ve got a ready-made crowd of people who don’t have day jobs that are ready to storm the streets and threaten the cops,” Berry said on his eponymous show on Houston’s KTRH, which is an iHeartRadio network station. “Let me suggest that for the people who end up getting in fights with the cops: Shut your mouth!” NBC News cannot be certain the audio was not edited.
RELATED: McKinney father recounts events at pool party
“Let me ask you, how many among you would put on a badge and a police uniform today?” he added. “How many of you would put on a badge, police uniform and be the first to respond — by yourself — to a crowd of teenagers, amped up — watch ‘em! Man, they’re screaming! ‘Get outta here! Who are you?! You don’t know what you! You go! You get! Who are you?! You can’t do that! No man, we gon’ get you! You bet!’ I mean you’re talking about, like, jungle animals. I mean this is wild, crazy, out of control.”
On his Monday broadcast, Berry also defended the “probably white” people who called police to the scene at the pool party, saying they were “scared to death” because “there’s a bunch of black people and they’re out on the streets and they’re fightin’ and carryin’ on and they’re playing that music from Jay-Z.”








