'Cowards': Youth baseball coach slams bystanders who let ICE threaten his kids

Youman Wilder, founder of Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy, got emotional while speaking out Monday afternoon on MSNBC following an incident last week in which he tried to stop U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from unlawfully questioning his young athletes, only to be threatened by the agents with physical assault or with obstruction charges.

"Tell me how old the kids were and where you guys were," said anchor Nicolle Wallace. "You were in a park on Riverside and 72nd. Were there a bunch of ball fields?"

"Well, there's batting cages there," said Wilder. "We usually work in Harlem ... and, you know, I always tell people it's very important that we don't want to be thought of as a victim. This academy has been around for 22 years. We've graduated 400 kids out of college who walked around with degrees from Stanford and Princeton and Harvard, all African-American and Latino kids. So we're not — we're, we're, we're not going around saying, poor little us because we do very, very good work."

"This can happen to anybody," he continued. "If it can happen on the Upper West Side of 72nd Street, it can happen to anybody. And that's, that's why I'm that, we have to — there's got to be a better way to, for the administration to deal with this. And it's got to be a better way for people to understand their rights."

"Coach, what did people — I mean, it's a really crowded area, a lot of people run in that area, a lot of, there's a lot of organized practices, and there are other folks trying to practice in that area. What did the bystanders do?" asked Wallace.

"They were — I, I'm a New Yorker ... we're tough people here," said Wilder, choking up. "But we — I saw cowards. And I hate to say that as somebody who loves the city."

"Okay. They're kids," said Wallace. "Tell me what — what did you want to see, and what — and what what disappointed you?"

"Obeying to authorities, to authority that was out of line, p---ing on the Constitution," said Wilder. "And I — they came up with I don't care, I don't care."

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