Jason Noble

jnoble2@dmreg.com

U.S. Rep. Steve King said the African-American community in Ferguson, Mo., should "settle down" and "straighten up and fly right," and suggested a tattoo parlor was not damaged in rioting because of blacks' existing relationships with the owners, in an interview posted Thursday on the conservative news website Newsmax.

King, an Iowa Republican known for inflammatory rhetoric, criticized President Barack Obama's response to the unfolding tensions in the St. Louis suburb, which were sparked last weekend by the shooting death of an unarmed African-American teen.

"The president should just be the moral leader at this point and call out the community to settle down," King said. "I'm not hearing that happen."

It was one of several statements in the roughly four-minute interview in which he placed the blame for the unrest squarely on the mostly black residents of Ferguson.

Responding to a question about the Congressional Black Caucus' concern over racial profiling leading to distrust between residents and police, King was dismissive.

"I've seen the video. It looks to me like you don't need to bother with that particular factor (racial profiling) because they all appear of a single origin, I should say, a continental origin might be the way to phrase that," King said.

At another point in the interview, King referenced a video he saw in a tweet that he attributed to an African-American man.

"He called upon them all to settle down, said 'I'm getting tired of this. I'm tired of you burning down our communities, my communities' and essentially said straighten up and fly right," King said. "I thought that was a good message. I was glad to see it."

Later, the Newsmax interviewer noted that a gun store and a tattoo parlor had not been damaged in looting and suggested it was because proprietors of those businesses had stood guard with guns.

In his response, King called the situation "pretty close to anarchy," and said it was appropriate for business owners to guard their property with weapons "when you get pretty close to anarchy."

"They're not going to loot the gun store because there's someone in there with one," King continued. "I'm not sure why they're not looting the tattoo parlor except that might have some of the strongest, friendliest relationships there."

At no point in the interview did King reference the police shooting that set off the protests and unrest, nor the heavy and militarized police response that has been widely criticized in recent days.

Democrats reacted quickly with condemnation of the comments.

"At a time when the state and our country is engaging in a difficult conversation, Steve King once again chooses to focus on hateful rhetoric that is completely out of line with our state's and nation's values," Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Scott Brennan said in a statement. "Steve King has proved himself an extreme outpost of ideology, and Iowans should not stand for this type of prejudice and intolerance from one of their representatives in Washington."