Rep. Byron Donalds: You Can’t Solve Police Brutality Problem from Capitol Hill

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) said that local police departments have to address the issue of police brutality and that besides training and equipment, Congress can’t solve the problem. 

When asked what’s the sense among Republicans about police reform legislation, Donalds said, “The sense right now, first, is obviously what we all saw in that video, was absolutely horrific, shouldn’t have happened. 

“Some of the conversations actually have come around centered around Tim Scott’s bill, the Justice Act, something that came up during 2020, and it was the Republican response to actually do things like provide more funding for training, more funding for body cams. Things like that to actually help with the training apparatuses, unlike what some people are calling for which is the George Floyd Act from that time period,” he told Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.”

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) called conservatives “domestic terrorists” and “extremists” when talking about the chances of passing police reform legislation in the wake of the death of Tyre Nichols despite the fact that five black Memphis police officers have been charged with his death.

“I don’t expect anything from that. We’ve got to try to do everything we possibly can but I think, you know, the average American person can see what’s going on. We have these right-wing conservatives. We have domestic terrorists in the House of Representatives. These people are extremists, and so I’m not optimistic,” Waters told MSNBC.

Asked to respond to Waters’ comments, Donalds told Fox News, “I got no idea what she’s even talking about. It made no sense to me. Look, the members of Congress, what we have to understand is that you can’t nationalize every issue. What happened in Memphis was heinous. It was awful, but the reality is, the local police department is the one that’s got to solve these problems. 

“They have to look at their training standards. They have to look at their hiring practices. Every law enforcement agency has to do that. Specific to Washington, there are a handful of remedies we can probably do. We can probably help a lot of these police departments with equipment and training, but you can’t solve those problems for them from Capitol Hill. Law enforcement will continue to be a local issue, in every community, and communities have to come together and solve it,” he said.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams claimed that the motive behind Nichols’ death was racism, despite the race of the police officers, because he said that police have historically treated blacks differently.

Asked to respond to Adams’ comments, Donalds said, “I just don’t understand what I’m responding to here, Laura. That made no sense from the mayor of New York, and if he has an issue with crime in his city, look no further than the district attorneys who still don’t actually prosecute crimes when NYPD officers are bringing people in who break the law. 

“It’s that simple, and once you have a situation where people are being held accountable, then you might get less of these situations. What happened in Memphis, like I said, is horrific. Nobody — that should never happen to anybody period, but to blame race and to blame Republicans, that’s just insane,” he said.

“That’s political rhetoric. It’s unfortunate that the left is doing what they always do trying to cast aspersions on everybody else instead of looking at their own policy prescriptions that have led to these issues in the first place,” the congressman added.

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