As the country’s violent crime crisis spirals out of control, “police reform” likely is not the measure that will quell violence, but bipartisan congressional talks on changing policing practices have been ongoing for many months.
They officially ended Wednesday without an agreement.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) that Democrats were walking away from talks because the two sides remained too far apart on “transparency, professional standards, and accountability.”
In a fair-minded 330-word statement, Scott expressed dismay, saying “crime will continue to increase while safety decreases, and more officers are going to walk away from the force because my negotiating partners walked away from the table.”
“I am deeply disappointed that Democrats have once again squandered a crucial opportunity to implement meaningful reform to make our neighborhoods safer and mend the tenuous relationship between law enforcement and communities of color,” Scott added. “Defunding the police destabilizes our communities. Change requires resources. I offered to introduce a bill that included our areas of compromise—a bill that activists and law enforcement alike could have supported. Despite having plenty of agreement, Democrats said no because they could not let go of their push to defund our law enforcement. Once again, the Left let their misguided idea of perfect be the enemy of good, impactful legislation.”
After months of making progress, I am deeply disappointed that Democrats have once again squandered a crucial opportunity to make our neighborhoods safer and mend the tenuous relationship between law enforcement and communities of color.https://t.co/1JSQHTJdIF
— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) September 22, 2021
In a written statement Wednesday, President Joe Biden claimed that Senate Republicans had “rejected enacting modest reforms” that former President Donald Trump had backed. He said his embattled administration would now seek executive orders “to live up to the American ideal of equal justice under law.”
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But how serious are Democrats, and why are police on the hook for rampant crime and the minuscule amount of unwarranted shootings?
Last year, Democrats, led by then-Sen. Kamala Harris, put politics before policy by filibustering and blocking a bill Scott and Republicans put forward.
Sen. Tim Scott said on Thursday that Congressional Democrats "don't want this president to have a victory on another serious issue confronting the minority communities." Scott said the move to block the GOP's police reform bill represented "pure, pure race politics at its worse." pic.twitter.com/ZFGwx2ffUo
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) June 25, 2020
And while these efforts began due to George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, police killings of “unarmed Black people” remain extremely rare. More black people are killed on a given weekend in cities like Chicago than are killed during an entire calendar year by police.
The violent protests and riots across the U.S. last year were mainly led by anti-American groups like Black Lives Matter and white urban millennials, bored by COVID-19 lockdowns and eager to get outside as the weather warmed.
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