Mayor criticizes cop union head over ‘rabid animals’ comment

Philadelphia’s mayor is criticizing the head of the police union for labeling protesters outside an officer’s home a “pack of rabid animals.”

Union president John McNesby made the comment last week at a rally supporting officers.

A week earlier a Black Lives Matter group and others protested outside the home of an officer who’s on administrative leave after fatally shooting a black man in June. The shooting is under review because police say it appears the man was shot in the buttocks as he ran away.

Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney tells Philadelphia Magazine , “Referring to black people as animals has a long, painful history in this country.”

McNesby tells the magazine he never referred to black people in his remarks and had no idea if protesters were black, white or Asian.