Late night comedian Bill Maher argued Friday that Michael Brown wasn’t the “gentle giant” his sympathizers made him out to be and that demonstrators on both sides of the issue in Ferguson, Missouri, are reacting emotionally without getting all their facts straight.

“I’m sorry, but Michael Brown’s people say he is a gentle giant,” he said. “Well, we saw that video of when he was in that 7-Eleven. No, he wasn’t a gentle giant. He was committing a robbery, and he pushed that guy. He was acting like a thug, not like a gentle giant. He certainly didn’t deserve to be shot for it.”

The HBO host lamented that so many people involved in the social unrest in Ferguson were so quick to take a side.

“You know what else I find disturbing is that everybody in America just sides with their own people and doesn’t look at the facts,” he said. “The cops, I saw on the news a couple of weeks ago, were wearing bracelets or something that said, ‘I am Darren Wilson.’ Why do you want to throw your lot in with this plain murderer?”

A grand jury is expected to decide next month whether to charge Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson for the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of 18-year-old Brown. Missouri police have been brushing up on constitutional rights and stocking up on riot gear to prepare for riots that are expected if Officer Wilson is not indicted.

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