Name: Local pastor tells congressional police reform hearing that police cuts made Cleveland 'unbelievably unsafe’
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Local pastor tells congressional police reform hearing that police cuts made Cleveland 'unbelievably unsafe’

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NEW!2,147sharesWASHINGTON, D.C. - At a congressional hearing where civil rights leaders and the brother of police brutality victim George Floyd testified about the need for police reform, New Spirit Revival Center Pastor Darrell Scott of Cleveland Heights decried calls to “defund the police.” And he argued that cuts to Cleveland’s police department transformed the city from being “relatively safe” to “unbelievably unsafe."Scott, a prominent African American ally of President Donald Trump, told the House Judiciary Committee that racial profiling and harsh police treatment of minorities should be immediately eliminated, but he doesn’t “recommend throwing the baby out with the bathwater by labeling all police officers as bad cops."Great new book by called “Nothing to Lose”. The Pastor is a winner and a great guy. Much can be learned from him. Buy the book. Make him a Big Deal Author!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)He argued that inner city communities across the United States need an increased police presence to enforce the law. Citing cuts to Cleveland’s police budget since 2004 that eliminated or reduced its narcotics, strike force and SWAT units, Scott said that “defunding of police departments ... has actually made conditions much worse.”“Cleveland has went from a relatively safe city per capita to an unbelievably unsafe city,” continued Scott, who recently was the subject of a that urged followers to buy Scott’s book. “Defunding or disbanding police departments is a horrible idea. Community policing is a very viable option to address the needs of inner city communities. Having police in communities to actually get to know the residents is the best way to obtain the results that we all want.”After the hearing, Scott at the White House.As Congress discusses police reform legislation in the wake of Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, Scott was among a dozen witnesses to advise the House Judiciary Committee on what to do.Floyd’s younger brother, Philonise, described his chagrin at watching the video of his brother dying with a police officer’s knee across his neck.“George’s calls for help were ignored,” Philonise Floyd told the committee. “Please listen to the call I’m making to you now, to the calls of our family, and to the calls ringing out in the streets across the world. People of all backgrounds, genders and race have come together to demand change. Honor them, honor George, and make the necessary changes that make law enforcement the solution – and not the problem. Hold them accountable when they do something wrong. Teach them what it means to treat people with empathy and respect. Teach them what necessary force is. Teach them that deadly force should be used rarely and only when life is at risk.”Democrats who control the House of Representatives have introduced a bill called the “Justice in Policing Act,” which would ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants at the federal level and limit the transfer of military-grade equipment to state and local law enforcement. Among other reforms intended to increase police accountability and transparency, it would establish a national police misconduct registry to prevent problematic officers from moving to different police departments, require use of dashboard and body cameras by federal officers, and improve law enforcement training programs. All of Ohio’s Democratic members of Congress have signed onto the bill.California Democratic Rep. Karen Bass, who chairs the a Judiciary subcommittee on crime, said that if the Democrats’ proposal were law, Floyd would be alive because chokeholds would be banned, and Cleveland’s Tamir Rice “would have graduated high school this May,” because the officer who shot him, Timothy Loehmann, wouldn’t have been hired after leaving Independence’s police department under a cloud."We've worked on criminal justice reform. We've worked on urban revitalization, prison reform, [and] HBCUs," Pastor Darrell Scott said."We're facing another challenge. We're going to come up with some great solutions to these problems that are confronting this country." — The White House (@WhiteHouse)“This legislation calls for a national registry so that would not have happened,” Bass said of Rice’s killing.Republicans in Congress are drafting their their own police reform legislation, led by the Judiciary Committee’s top Republican, Rep. Jim Jordan of Champaign County. At the hearing, Jordan said that Floyd’s killing was “as wrong as wrong can be," and called for “real solutions" to address police mistreatment of African Americans. He said most police officers are “responsible, hard working, heroic first-responders,” and denounced calls by demonstrators and some politicians to “”“We must ensure accountability for police misconduct, not defund or dismantle police departments,” agreed Cincinnati Rep. Steve Chabot, a Republican Judiciary Committee member. “Hopefully, we can have both parties working together to actually accomplish something here and not just point fingers and blame the other side.”— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan)Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown told reporters on Wednesday that calls to “defund the police” don’t mean disbanding police departments or refusing to spend money on law enforcement. He said it refers to a move to “start thinking more about training police, about discipline, about making sure that mental health services are available in communities and some things aren’t police work that have been defined that way.”He said Trump and his Republican allies are portraying the “defund the police” slogan as a move to disband police departments as a way to “distract.”“Instead of actually moving forward in this really, really, important bill to finally deal with structural racism in this country and deal with police in our communities, the president continues to play race, continues to divide, and continues to demagogue these issues,” said Brown.Brown, who lives in Cleveland, disputed Scott’s claim that Cleveland is dangerous. He said he believes some of the city’s problems stem from structural racism. Cleveland’s police budget has increased every year since 2017. It went from $185 million last year to $217 million this year.“A lot of it is underpinned by the fact that our city is poorer than it was,” said Brown. “There are fewer jobs and fewer good paying jobs and fewer people living in Cleveland.”Ohio’s other U.S. Senator, Cincinnati Republican Rob Portman, says he believes Republicans and Democrats will be able to find common ground on issues like modernizing police, providing more training to officers, and restoring community trust in the police. He says he’s told his Republican colleagues drafting a Senate bill about that Cinncinnati reached in 2002 to address community-police relations. He hopes it might be used as a model for their legislation.“I think it’s an example of where the federal government can play a role of being supportive, providing grant funding, training reforms, more accountability, leading to improved relationships with communities of color,” Portman said Wednesday.Cleveland.com reporter Adam Ferrise contributed to this report.More coverage:Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

NEW!2,147sharesWASHINGTON, D.C. - At a congressional hearing where civil rights leaders and the brother of police brutality victim George Floyd testified about the need for police reform, New Spirit Revival Center Pastor Darrell Scott of Cleveland Heights decried calls to “defund the police.” And he argued that cuts to Cleveland’s police department transformed the city from being “relatively safe” to “unbelievably unsafe."Scott, a prominent African American ally of President Donald Trump, told the House Judiciary Committee that racial profiling and harsh police treatment of minorities...

Local pastor tells congressional police reform hearing that police cuts made Cleveland 'unbelievably unsafe’

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