FOX 2 - Detroit Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is drawing criticism and praise after controversial remarks about abolishing policing and incarceration in the wake of the Minnesota police shooting of Daunte Wright.
It was no accident says Tlaib (D-Detroit), weighing in on the police killing of the 20-year-old Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, which sparked protests and civil unrest.
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Rashida Tlaib’s tweet that policing should be abolished in wake of Daunte Wright death draws cheers, jeers
Detroit Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is drawing criticism and praise after controversial remarks about abolishing policing and incarceration in the wake of the Minnesota police shooting of Daunte Wright.
Tlaib took to Twitter Monday condemning the shooting and calling for the end of policing incarceration and militarization.
"You might as well as rip it out to the studs and rebuild it," said Kenneth Reed. "Because what’s going on in terms of policing today, isn’t working - particularly for Black men and women and children in the United States."
Reed who leads the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, is applauding Tlaib’s remarks.
"At the end of the day with all these killings and shootings that’s been inflicted and other acts of police brutality that’s been inflicted by police officers not only here in Detroit but across the country, we the taxpayers, the people, are paying for this stuff," Reed said.
In the now viral tweet, Tlaib described American policing as inherently and intentionally racist.
"She’s opinionated, I get it, but never once in 31 years did I ever say, ‘Hey let’s go out and lock up a Hispanic guy or lock up a Black guy. Never once," said Steve Dolunt. "She makes it sound like all cops are bad. That’s like saying all politicians are bad."
Daunte Wright
FOX 2 caught up with Dolunt, the retired Detroit assistant police chief.
"It’s easy to talk the talk, it’s another to walk the walk and based on those comments if she was a police officer, the chances are she would lead this city in complaints," Dolunt said.
The Brooklyn Center police chief, who resigned Tuesday, says the officer who shot and killed Wright intended to tase him, but mistakenly grabbed her service weapon and shot him instead.
"I guess the thing that comes to my mind with my years of experience in having dealt with a lot of officer-involved shootings: how do you confuse the deployment of a taser to a handgun?" said Detroit Police Chief James Craig on FOX Business channel.
Craig went on to say that support for law enforcement is dwindling, which impacts recruitment and retaining officers in many cities.