Republican Turns The Table On Dems Over Police Reform

Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

(FixThisNation.com) – Senator Tim Scott (S.C.) has said that following Tyre Nichols’s death by five Memphis police officers, he would be willing to try and reach a bipartisan agreement on police reforms. He also called out the Democrats who had opposed his reform bill in 2020.

Scott opposed the perspective presented by many Democrats, such as Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Durbin, that it was the Republicans who were at fault for Congress not passing a major police reform bill. Instead, Scott blasted Durbin for not supporting his Just and Unifying Solutions To Invigorate Communities Everywhere Act (JUSTICE) Act, which could have banned police chokeholds, and created a “duty” for officers to intervene when other officers were using too much force.

While speaking on the Senate floor, Scott said that he had “never left the table” as Senator Durbin had implied during a segment on ABC’s “This Week” and that he was willing to negotiate on police reforms. He added that it had been Durbin who filibustered the JUSTICE act.

Scott emphasized that had the bill passed, law enforcers would be required to complete additional training. As the only Black Republican senator, Scott also appeared particularly angered by the fact that the bill had not passed in June 2020. The bill had at the time been triggered by the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. The death led to outrage and protests across the country.

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