CNN panel goes off the rails when ex-cop claims black people are 'prone to criminality'

Former NYPD detective Harry Houck on Monday argued that the black Americans were "prone to criminality," and that activists should stop claiming that blacks were being "picked on" by law enforcement.

During a panel discussion on CNN's New Day about police killing two black men, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, Houck argued that "racial demagogues" were wrong to complain about "disparities of blacks and whites in jails."

Houck presented a sheet of paper which he said had statistics proving that black people were far more likely to commit violent crimes than whites.

"That's why there are more blacks in jail than there are whites," he insisted. "They turn it around -- the racial demagogues out there -- turn it around that the blacks are being picked on."

CNN commentator Mark Lamont Hill pointed out that an investigation in Ferguson, Missouri found that there was "considerable evidence of racism" in the police department.

"It doesn't matter!" Houck exclaimed.

"Harry just went on national TV and said black people are prone to criminality!" Hill observed.

"Well, they are!" Houck replied.

"You think black people are prone to criminality?" Hill asked, raising his voice. "You don't mean to say that. I'm going to give you a chance to correct [yourself]. You don't mean that black people are prone to criminality."

"You are interpreting something else into what I'm saying into your narrative!" Houck yelled back. "That's what you do!"

Watch the video below from CNN's New Day, broadcast July 11, 2016.