Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton introduced a resolution urging the Senate to reject calls to defund the police.
The measure, unveiled on Tuesday, defends police officers amid growing calls from Black Lives Matter and far-left lawmakers to defund police departments.
“A free society depends on the rule of law, which is the foundation for the preservation of public order, peace, and individual rights,” reads the resolution from Cruz and Cotton, representing Texas and Arkansas, respectively.
“Defunding the police would leave police departments understaffed and undertrained, while also increasing the risk of violent crime to the communities of the United States, especially vulnerable communities,” the resolution also says.
Nationwide protests have taken place for the past two weeks following the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Chauvin was fired from the department and has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The three other officers who were involved in detaining Floyd, who was suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill, were also fired and charged with aiding and abetting murder.
In response to Floyd’s death, a veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council pledged to disband the police department on Sunday in a city home to approximately 430,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was told to “get the f— out” by a crowd of protesters on Saturday after saying he did not support abolishing the police.
Far-left members of Congress, including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, have advocated for defunding or disbanding police departments, while presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and former presidential candidate Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who once called for a political, socialist revolution, have distanced themselves away from the movement.
“We know that violent crime disproportionally affects low-income communities and that law enforcement plays a critical role in protecting life and preserving a free and functioning society,” Cruz said on the resolution. “We also know that law enforcement has an important responsibility in upholding our criminal justice system. Though our nation has taken many troubled turns on our continuing march towards justice, defunding and abolishing police departments will undoubtedly take us backwards in that endeavor.”
The resolution, co-signed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Texas Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, and other Republicans, also calls for “justice for George Floyd, acknowledging historical racism like slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, and the “terror of lynch mobs.”
“The killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, at the hands of law enforcement was a horrific act that violated the public trust and was inconsistent with the values and conduct expected of law enforcement officers,” the resolution reads.
