Criminal defense attorney Arthur Aidala erupted when former MSNBC host Tiffany Cross implied he didn’t need to be worried about crime because he was white.
National Guard troops have patrolled Washington, D.C., since President Donald Trump announced a federal takeover of the city’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to combat crime in the District of Columbia on Aug. 11. After Aidala clashed with “CNN NewsNight” host Abby Phillip’s characterization of the crackdown as a “military occupation,” Cross took exception to Aidala saying he felt “thrilled.”
“You were absolutely right and accurate in your open, Abby. I think the reason why you may feel that way, Arthur, is because you maneuver in society with a certain privilege. The question is, who are these —” Cross claimed, before Aidala erupted, saying, “Hold on. What privilege? When I get on the subway, just tell me — just tell me the privilege. When I’m dressed like this on the subway, I am a target. That is not a privilege. I’m a target. There’s a guy who probably has a wallet and a watch —”
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“Arthur, I want you to be open. I want you to have a little bit of intellectual curiosity and be open and let me finish my point,” Cross said, with Aidala responding, “Okay. I’m very curious.”
Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York deployed 750 members of the New York National Guard and 250 state troopers to combat crime on the subways of New York City in March 2024, which Aidala brought up earlier in the show.
“I think if when you ask the question, who is the militarized law enforcement there to protect and who are they there to protect from, and so often in this country particularly, that is how law enforcement swole their ranks,” Cross claimed. “There was so much violence against people of color, black people in particular in this country, that they said it‘s okay to beat a black person, to murder a black person, but you got — but you got to be wearing a badge when you do it.”
“But who are the victims?” Aidala asked.
Since Trump launched the crackdown in the nation’s capital, 1,094 arrests have been made and 115 guns have been seized, according to a Tuesday post on X by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Cross claimed to know what was taking place “on the front lines.”
“I am telling you on the front lines what is happening. And there are militarized police force going and harassing longtime law-abiding citizens of Washington, D.C.. And so when we who are probably a little more familiar with American history, perhaps than you, look at the military turning the police force on its own people, we remember the examples like Tulsa, when law enforcement dropped bombs on its own community. We know what it is like to have people —” Cross claimed, with Aidala interrupting to say, “We’re far from that, though.”
“We are not so far. We are not so far. We are actually not so far from that,” Cross responded, with Aidala asking, “From dropping bombs on people?”
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