Black Republican Senator Says He’s Been Repeatedly Stopped By Police In Last Year
Posted by Michelle Moquin on July 20th, 2016
Good morning!
From Think Progress:
Black Republican Senator Says He’s Been Repeatedly Stopped By Police In Last Year
Speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, a Republican senator took 18 minutes to describe his own experiences as a black man profiled by police. He also recounted the seven times he’s been pulled over by cops in the last year, explaining that his profession isn’t enough to shield him from racist policing.
Following a Senate discussion about the need for criminal justice reform, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) got candid about the reality of being black in America, the second of several speeches on race he’s planned for this week.
“In the course of one year, I’ve been stopped seven times by law enforcement officers. Not four, not five, not six, but seven times in one year as an elected official,” he said. “Was I speeding sometimes? Sure. But the vast majority of the times, I was pulled over for nothing more than driving a new car in the wrong neighborhood, or some other reason just as trivial.”
Scott detailed several times he was followed by police for reasons he couldn’t deduce. He also admitted that he’s been questioned and profiled by police on Capitol Hill.
“I do not know many African American men who do not have a very similar story to tell, no matter their profession. No matter their income. No matter their disposition in life. Imagine the frustration, the irritation, the sense of a loss of dignity that accompanies each of those stops,” Scott said. “I have felt the anger, the frustration, the sadness, and the humiliation that comes with feeling like you’re being targeted for nothing more than being just yourself.”
Click here to watch the speech.
Scott’s remarks came nearly one week after Philando Castile was fatally shot in St. Anthony in front of a 4-year-old girl and Dallas police were gunned down by a sniper — two tragedies the senator brought up in his speech. Like Scott, Castile was stopped numerous times by officers before he was killed — 52 times since 2002, according to the Associated Press. But Scott also spoke on the Senate floor about the Dallas shooting on Tuesday, urging the country to have a “family conversation” about the challenges the country experienced last week and condemning the massacre.
“Our nation is experiencing turmoil we haven’t seen in generations,” he said. “There are wounds that have existed for more than a generation, and it’s time for the American family to work together to heal some of these wounds.”
Scott has been outspoken about race and policing in the past. Last year, he criticized the fatal shooting of Walter Scott, who was shot in the back while fleeing officer Michael Slager in North Charleston, South Carolina. Scott’s also been a vocal proponent of police body cameras, and introduced a bill to allocate $100 million to police departments, annually, in order to equip more officers with them.
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July 20th, 2016 at 10:39 am
Looks like a another cop has been slain. I hope it is not going to be blamed on BLM.
July 20th, 2016 at 10:52 am
Ah, we feel so bad for the house nigger. Maybe he should try kissing as much cop ass as he does white republican ass.
July 20th, 2016 at 10:58 am
When Texas revolted from Mexico in 1836 the reason was given that the Mexican government wanted to take their property.
What the Texas textbooks do not tell you is WHAT property they were talking about. It seems that Mexico passed a law in 1836 that banned slavery and required businesses to pay a salary to all its workers.
Texas succeeded in its revolution and later joined the Union as a slave state. You will not find that in any Texas school textbook.
It is the same about the genocide against 12,000,000 native Americans. The use of germ warfare, bounties on the scalps of women and children, incarceration in concentration camps and the systematic starving of hundreds of thousands of prisoners in those camps.
The enslavement, rape, pedophilia, incest, torture, maiming, and murder of tens of millions of blacks for 250 years is just the tip of the iceberg white america is guilty of but will never be in any history book.
July 20th, 2016 at 11:03 am
Whites lie at every opportunity. “Remember the Alamo,” indeed. A battle between two armies resulted in the Texans losing. General Santa Ana ordered his men to take no prisoners but a handful of Texans did survive. That happened in the 19th century.
Examples of the take no prisoners battles include the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876) and the Sand Creek Massacre (1864).
The lie, however is how Texans used Remember the Alamo as a battle cry for their independance while simultaneously denying freedom to others.
Bowie and others actually brought their slaves with them to the Alamo. Perhaps you would rather call it hypocrisy?
July 20th, 2016 at 11:12 am
My antique encyclopedia from the 1930s says Negros are a mentally inferior race who are good at dancing and singing, but are otherwise shiftless and lazy…
Of course, whites will say that was then, well it would still be now, if blacks didn’t take to the streets VIOLENTLY to end the tyranny and show racist whites that there will be a high price to pay to continue their oppression.
Looks like thugs with badges may need the same message. It is up to them. Black men are getting tired of being murdered by cops who white juries give a license to murder unarmed black people at will.
July 20th, 2016 at 11:13 am
Most Texans do not sympathize with this thinking. Most of the population of the state is concentrated in the five large cities (Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso), which are all very blue.
The state is gerrymandered to all hell. Since Ann Richards (our last Democratic governor) stepped down, the state has just gone to shit politically. It’s not all of us, I swear.
July 20th, 2016 at 11:14 am
Sharon#6, Partly true- but the sociopaths at the level of state officials and Senators are as certifiably evil as anyone at any level of power in the state.
That is not the result of gerrymandering, that is the result of having many citizens unworthy to elect anyone with authority to pass laws affecting other Americans.
Yes there are decent Texans, but clearly not nearly enough of them. There are decent Afghans as well, but that does not mean it should be a state.
July 20th, 2016 at 11:15 am
Not surprising. I grew up in Texas and was one of only five Mexican-Americans in my high school. Every day brought new insults and sometimes physical fights with racist students. Of course, none of this was discouraged by the administration.
In fact, I got the impression that they approved of this treatment. And black students were treated just as badly. But hey, that’s Texas, where everything is big, especially the racism. Lol
July 20th, 2016 at 7:49 pm
Move On Member Says:
July 20th, 2016 at 7:46 pm
With Mike Pence poised to take the stage tonight to formally accept the GOP nomination for vice president, I can’t stop thinking about a bill he signed into law just months ago as governor of Indiana.
The bill makes abortion illegal in the case of fetal abnormalities.1
You see, a little less than six years ago, I was newly pregnant with twins, when my doctor told me that one of the fetuses had Trisomy 18—a genetic disorder that affects nearly every organ system in the body.2 Half of babies born with the disorder die within their first week of life; the median lifespan is five to 15 days.3 There’s a high risk of miscarriage or stillbirth with Trisomy 18—which put my other twin at risk, since I could go into labor very early or face other serious complications.
After my doctor explained my options and the risks, I made an anguished but clear decision to have a “selective reduction”—an abortion of the fetus with Trisomy 18, which would have been illegal under Pence’s law—to save my baby.
About seven months later, I delivered a healthy, nearly 9 pound baby girl. My daughter is now five years old. She is strong, kind, and sings constantly.
I don’t even want to think about what might have happened to her under Mike Pence’s vision for America. And we can’t ever let that come to pass. That’s why we have to do everything we can to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.
If you think Trump and Pence can’t win, I beg you to take them seriously.
In addition to being a very proud mom, I’m a political junkie and a campaign director at MoveOn. I’ve been poring over the polls, and they are not looking good. Of the last five national polls released this week, all five were within the margin of error—meaning it’s a tight race.4
MoveOn is working to counter the spin that Pence is a cool-headed, proven leader who balances Trump’s ticket, when in reality, he makes it even more extreme. Most voters don’t yet know who Pence is, so we need to get the facts out right now.
That’s why I’m sharing my story. Up until now, only a handful of my very close family and friends knew I was ever pregnant with twins. But we just can’t stay silent or sit on the sidelines, given how much is at stake.
Pence has said, “I long for the day Roe v. Wade is sent to the ash heap of history.”5
And that’s not all. In addition to rabidly opposing abortion rights, Pence thinks that women who work cause their children to have “stunted emotional growth.”6 When he was in Congress, he sponsored the very first bill to defund Planned Parenthood—and then he continued to push for the legislation year after year.7 And Pence doesn’t think women in the military should be in combat roles.8
So it’s no surprise that Pence is the vice presidential pick of a man who once said, “Women, you have to treat them like shit.”9
For my daughter—and for girls and women everywhere—we must stop these two dangerous men from getting to the White House.
Thanks for all you do.
–Emily Figdor
Sources:
1. “ACLU, Planned Parenthood sue Indiana over new abortion law,” AP, April 8, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4745?t=17&akid=166915.7692656.ID3pbJ
2. “Trisomy 18 and 13,” Stanford Children’s Health, accessed July 20, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4746?t=19&akid=166915.7692656.ID3pbJ
3. “Trisomy 18,” Medline Plus, accessed July 19, 2016
https://act.moveon.org/go/4747?t=21&akid=166915.7692656.ID3pbJ
4. “2016 General Election: Trump vs. Clinton,” The Huffington Post, accessed July 20, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4738?t=23&akid=166915.7692656.ID3pbJ
5. “Mike Pence has made no secret about his views on abortion. Will this help or hurt Trump?” Washington Post, July 15, 2016
https://act.moveon.org/go/4749?t=25&akid=166915.7692656.ID3pbJ
6. “Pence in 1997: Working mothers stunt emotional growth of children,” CNN Politics, July 19, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4750?t=27&akid=166915.7692656.ID3pbJ
7. “Mike Pence launched Republicans’ war on Planned Parenthood,” Vox, July 14, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4751?t=29&akid=166915.7692656.ID3pbJ
8. “Mike Pence Used Disney’s ‘Mulan’ to Argue that Women Shouldn’t Serve in the Military,” Fortune, July 18, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4752?t=31&akid=166915.7692656.ID3pbJ
9. “Donald Trump Hates Women,” Slate, March 24, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/2589?t=33&akid=166915.7692656.ID3pbJ
July 20th, 2016 at 8:01 pm
Maybe the chance to take back the Senate and House is getting better. Federal judges have told two states, WI and TX they can not use their voter suppression laws to prevent OTWs from voting in the 2016 election.
Both federal judges just told those states that their way of trying to disenfranchise voters is not constitutional and will not fly.
July 20th, 2016 at 8:14 pm
BWHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Holy shit!!!! I cannot keep up with the demand for popcorn during this entire RNC debacle!!!!! ROTFLMBAO!!!!!!
July 20th, 2016 at 8:16 pm
This “lifting” of other peoples ideas is nothing new to the con party.
WTF – That party and the racist goons, slugs & thugs in it have been “lifting” the christian white supremacy meme from the old confedracy peckerwoods and cracrz ever since Nixon and his gang of political pervs lifted it and rebranded it as the con party’s “Southern Strategy” for taking over the poor white trailer trash and backwoods klansmen votes in Old Dixie for generations.
July 20th, 2016 at 8:17 pm
Rush Limbaugh and his listeners are saying the words Melania used in her speech were sincere and do not care if they were the words of Mrs. Obama’s speech from 2008.
That those words spoken by Mrs. Obama were not sincere but the same words spoken by Melania are. There are some very serious mental issues with some Republican Party members. So much hate is not good for anyone.
July 20th, 2016 at 8:20 pm
You people getting on Melania shut the fuck up. The same words were never used, buyt yes, similar ideas were used, just like the thousands of other political speeches before Michelle gave her speech that also used similar language of morals and teachings and passing on their morals to future generations. These are the most common ideas used in political speeches.
Liberals are so desperate they even forget that Obama was busted openly plagiarizing several times himself, anmd not just basic ideas but word for word copy/pasting from other speeches, so why get all upset over this?
July 20th, 2016 at 8:51 pm
As much as I despise Ted Cruz, today I have to give him kudos. He stood up for his family, especially his wife and father who were maligned by trump during the run for the nomination.
The conventional wisdom being laid out for everyone to accept by the white controlled media on all the channels was – Ted behaved badly because he came to trump’s party ate the food and pissed on the carpet. The implication being that at best if he didn’t like trump he should have just shut up and stayed home.
Bullshit, If it was only about losing the nomination to trump I could agree with that sentiment. But this was about a man defending disgusting accusations heaped upon his wife and father.
Of course the irony of this is Cruz and the rest of that vitriolic party do the same to democratic politicians and their families every day. Cruz just didn’t like it when he was on the end of that vitriolic stick.
But Cruz said, I will not stay home, I will go to that creep’s party and let him and the rest of the world know that I will kiss the ass of a creature that did what he did to my family.
And yet all we hear from the various news hosts is it is about the principle of endorsing the winning nominee for the sake of the unity of the party. Nothing about WHY he didn’t endorse. So those unaware of the sick way trump attacked Ted Cruz’s wife and father during the campaign were left with the impression that Cruz was just a bad sport.
July 20th, 2016 at 9:27 pm
Alycedale#15, you nailed it all three times. !. Your pointing out the disingenuousness of the white news media. But if I may, that is just white nature and character. You are talking about the race that says to the native American, just shut up and stay on the reservations we put you on. Or to the blacks, and other OTWs just shut up and be citizens forget about the horrible shit we did to your ancestors.
2. The end justifies the means. Trump won that is all that counts so rally around the winner. Forget about what he did to you or yours to get there. Just get in line and kiss his ass because he won.
3. That is a disgusting party that accepts the vilification of opponents, and any lie will do. The VP got up there and lied about the content in which Hilary said, “what does it matter.” And – RNC Speaker Scott Baio Tweeted Meme Referring To Hillary Clinton As A C**t – http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/scott-baio-speaker-republican-convention
======================
I loved you irony point. There was a man up there defending his family against the very same thing he does to other candidates and opponents’s families.
Poor ted, the his party’s evil shit came home to roost.
July 20th, 2016 at 9:48 pm
Three simple exercises to help improve eye health
Like every other part of your body, your eyes need to be exercised to stay fit and continue working properly. If your eyes are frequently sore and tired, try these three simple vision exercises regularly.
1. Place the palms of your hands against the orbits of your eye (the palms shouldn’t touch the eyeball, only the bony area around it). Apply enough pressure so that you have total darkness in both eyes.
Keep your eyes closed and covered. Look up as far as you can. Now look straight ahead. Then look as far as you can to the right and go back to the center. Now look straight down as far as you can and back to the center. Now go all the way to the left and back to the center.
2. Hold a pencil straight out in front of you at arm’s length and focus both eyes on the tip of the pencil. Slowly bring the pencil in toward your face, keeping your eyes focused on the tip until it touches your nose.
Now slowly move the pencil back to arm’s length, still focusing on the tip. Try to keep the tip in focus at all times. As your eye muscles become stronger, this exercise will get easier.
3. Hold a pencil at arm’s length and look straight ahead at all times. Do not move your head during this exercise. Slowly move the pencil upward until you can no longer see the point with your peripheral vision.
Now move it slowly back down to center (keep focusing) and all the way to the right until you can no longer see the point, and back to the center. Then go all the way down until you no longer see the point, bring it back up to the center and do the same thing going to the left and back to the center.