Tuesday on CNN’s OutFront, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee supported radical colleague Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s unhinged call for “no more policing” after the police-involved shooting of a black suspect in Minnesota, saying that Congress “is a big tent” and Tlaib “has a right to her opinion.”
“I think it’s important to realize that, as African Americans, we are filled with officers in our community, in our families,” Jackson Lee began by saying. “And we are supportive of the idea of good policing. And I think that’s the same place that Vice President Harris is and President Biden is. They are for good policing.”
A good start. But then, responding to Tlaib’s statement, Jackson Lee couldn’t help stoking the false narrative that blacks are unfairly targeted by a white supremacist law enforcement: “The Congress and America is a big tent. And so, the congresswoman has a right to her opinion. And there are many who are frustrated because race is a large issue in the way African Americans are treated by law enforcement. We were not shy in making that point. Race is always an element. But as we recognize race and racism and white supremacy, as we recognize that America is not where we would like her to be, but she is a country that has the ability to continue to form a more perfect union, we’ve got to work to get these problems solved.”
Yes, we have to work together. And we need to start with the facts and reality of criminal behavior, rather than the divisive, inflammatory narrative that law enforcement is a white supremacist institution.