By Lance Strong,
Sen. Tim Scott has a record of being something of a stooge for the Republican Party and often gets marched out in front of cameras to serve in an elevated token Black role. The GOP senator made explosive claims that policing reform talks in Congress fell apart due to defunding the police being included in measures, but it appears Scott lied about it, allegedly.
According to a report from The Washington Post, the South Carolina politician issued the claims after Democrats ended the talks after Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. Karen Bass stated that they made several compromises to satisfy the demands of their GOP counterparts but their side was unwilling to relent. This lead to Scott publicly saying that Democrats were pushing for a “defund the police” angle in the potential legislation, which was sparked in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Fraternal Order of Police issued a joint statement on Tuesday (September 28) that decried Scott’s claim, and expressed disappointment that Senate lawmakers were unable to meet in the middle in moving the legislation forward.
“Despite some media reports, at no point did any legislative draft propose ‘defunding the police.’ read a portion of the statement. “In fact, the legislation specifically provided additional funding to assist law enforcement agencies in training, agency accreditation, and data collection initiatives. It is our joint belief that the provisions under discussion would have strengthened the law enforcement profession and helped improve the state of community police engagement without compromising management and officers’ rights, authorities, and legal protections.”
Once again, Sen. Tim Scott would rather lie to stoke partisan bickering and appeal to a Trumpish base rather than help advance a law that two of the top police unions were even in agreement with moving forward.