Will Republicans Get on Board With Police Reform?

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): I don’t know exactly what they’re bringing in front of the Congress. We just heard about this bill basically coming today. Some of it sounds good but the devil is always in the details. You know, how do we — I think a couple things. How do you screen to make sure the right people are coming into the police force? How do you ensure that they’re accountable to each other and accountable to leadership to say, if you see abuse happening, there is something you need to do about it? You know, and how do we keep them safe? But I think where this argument gets derailed, quite honestly, and what I’m worried about because I do want to see real change happen, is that both sides kind of go to some pretty extreme corners on this, and one of those is the idea of defunding the police. Now, I’ve notices that people are talking about defunding the police are trying to change the talk a little bit and say, well, we just want to reduce some of the funding and put it into social services, but this started as defund and abolish the police and that is where you’re going to lose all Republicans, you’ll lose a lot of Democrats, frankly, on that as we saw with the mayor in Minneapolis. But I do think there is an opportunity to say, what’s going wrong, how do we fix it? Because I always think back to that shooting in Houston where there were people protesting police abuse, and then you had that shooter that came out and actually police and the protestors worked together to save each other. And so, I think we all have to try to work together in this if we want to see real change.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, I guess the obvious question, and I assume you believe this given what you just said. I mean, most people, most, many, particularly around the world as well, are saying that America has failed its black people, it’s just failed, and there needs to be so much fundamental change. And there are members of your own party who don’t even admit that there is systemic racism anywhere, much less in — just in the police. Do you believe there is systemic racism? And do you admit that America has failed the black community?

KINZINGER: Well, look, those are both kind of loaded questions, and I think we have to take them apart a little bit. Systemic racism implies in the definition that there are laws that favor a certain race. I think we have made some massive progress, and anybody who doubts it, all you have to do is look back to the ’60s and see where we are at today. But there is a lot in the process to go. I think it’s inflammatory to call it systemic, but instead to say there are still examples of failure. So, if you have a police officer with his knee on a guy’s neck for nine minutes, suffocating him to death, that is a huge problem, and there are systemic issues within that police department. Is that always the case within the country? I don’t know, and I think that’s a big leap to jump to. And I think, again, it puts us in our corners because some people say, well, we made huge progress, it’s not systemic. Others say, no, it is systemic. We have to learn to see this through each other’s eyes. But I there’s certainly is progress that needs to be made.