Pelosi: McConnell’s Balk at Policing Reform ‘Dangerous,’ ‘Disgraceful’ — How Many More Have to Die?

Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) saying the House bill on policing reform is not going anywhere in the Senate is “dangerous.”

Pelosi said, “I hope there’s a compromise to be reached in the Congress of the United States. I’m more concerned about what Mitch McConnell said about our bill, The George P. Floyd Justice in Policing Act. He said it’s not going anywhere in the Senate. We won’t have any of that. We won’t have any of, what, ending racial profiling? We won’t have any of ending chokeholds? We won’t have any of no-knock warrants? The list goes on and on. That is serious. How many more hundreds of thousands of people have to demonstrate in the streets, protest peacefully for justice in policing?”

She continued, “How many more people have to die from police brutality? And so for the leader of the Senate to say it’s going nowhere, we won’t even, we don’t want any of that, is really disgraceful, and really ignores the concerns of the American people. We all know that we need to have guidelines. We need to have training. We need to have a database. We need all of those things, but we also need to have some serious legislation to make sure it happens nationally. I feel very, very disappointed by the dangerous statement made by the Republican leader of the Senate.”

She added, “This isn’t about drawing red lines in the sand. It’s about making a big difference, taking a giant step forward and saying to the leader in the Senate, you call yourself the grim reaper. How aptly named you are when you see how many people have died. How many people have died? How much lack of confidence there is and whether there is systemic racism in our country, and clearly, there is. But this is, we have an opportunity for America. This is a time of reckoning to say we’re going to make a change that is real, not cosmetic, not perfunctory, not a photo op, but legislation that is real.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN