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(Video Credit: Forbes Breaking News)
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) raked Attorney General Merrick Garland over the coals Tuesday concerning skyrocketing crime during a Senate hearing, grilling him on how many police officers he thinks are “racist” and later stating that “Chicago is now the world’s largest outdoor shooting range.”
The senator was notably angered and frustrated by Garland’s non-answers during the questioning which comes in the wake of escalating crime in communities across the nation. Most notably in Democratic-led cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, and DC.
Instead of using resources to fight exploding crime, the Department of Justice has reportedly allocated them to probe local police departments in an effort to ferret out systemic racism and investigate law enforcement officers over use-of-force incidents against rioters rather than taking a tougher stance against criminals.
“What percentage of cops in America do you think are bad cops?” Kennedy pressed Garland during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.
“A very small percentage,” Garland replied, dodging a direct answer to the question.
Sen. John Kennedy says he thinks DOJ is “losing” on crime and immigration. “What percentage of cops in America do you think are bad cops?” Kennedy asks. “Very small percentage,” replies AG Garland. “We believe most police officers follow the Constitution in their practices.”
— Carrie Johnson (@johnson_carrie) April 26, 2022
“Is it under 10%?” Kennedy asked him.
“Yes,” Garland unconvincingly responded.
Kennedy then asked the attorney general if it was under 5 percent. Garland seemed to waffle but then stated that that was “probably” accurate.
“Do you think most cops are racist?” Kennedy bluntly asked him, “What percentage of cops do you think … are racist?”
“I don’t know,” Garland said while looking flustered.
Kennedy opened up his questioning by noting that the Justice Department is “losing” on “crime,” “drugs,” “immigration,” and “Chinese espionage.” He asserted that something has to change.
He went on to vent that Chicago has become “the world’s largest outdoor shooting range.” Kennedy claimed that gangs now account for most gun crime on the streets and that Garland had not been nearly aggressive enough in addressing it.
“We’re going backwards here on crime, general,” the senator informed Garland.
“You’re one of the country’s chief law enforcement officials, maybe the chief, and what you say matter. And, suppose, here’s what I’m asking: let’s take Chicago, where you haven’t, we haven’t made any inroads in stopping the killing,” Kennedy stated. “Chicago is now the world’s largest outdoor shooting range. We know that a lot of the shootings come from gangs.”
“Why wouldn’t you want to call the police chief and the mayor in Chicago and say, ‘Look, you know who these gang members are. When you have reasonable suspicion, under Terry v. Ohio – an objective standard, more than just a hunch – why don’t you aggressively stop, question, and frisk these gang members?’” he asked.
“You’ll get drugs off the street. You’ll get guns off the street. And, you’ll get a lot of gang members off the street and you’ll stop people killing each other,” Kennedy remarked.
“Why won’t you do that?” he asked again.
Garland did not directly answer that question either and instead intimated that violent crime is mostly a state and local issue.
“It’s a resource allocation issue for each local police department,” Garland deflected.
Can you imagine if he was on the court
— Richard LaGrant (@lagrantr1) April 27, 2022
“Is that what we’re supposed to tell the mothers of those kids getting killed in Chicago, ‘You don’t understand, it’s a resource allocation issue?'” Kennedy angrily clapped back.
The line of questioning comes as Kennedy, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and others sent a letter to Garland demanding to know why he decided “to place three deputy United States Marshals (DUSMs) on limited duty and inform them they are under investigation for a use-of-force incident that occurred over 20 months ago while they defended the federal courthouse in Portland.”
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