Senator Bill Cassidy (R) - Louisiana
Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy says the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis Police Officers should not have occurred, but calls defunding police a stupid idea. Cassidy says cutting law enforcement budgets will only help criminals.
“No one would be more happy to defund the police than rapists and robbers. Unless we want rapists and robbers to rule the streets, then we need to fund the police,” said Cassidy.
Cassidy says the focus should be on police reform and also allocating more dollars towards mental health programs so that officers have fewer encounters with mentally ill individuals. But he admits this is not an overnight solution.
“There’s going to be a start up time. There is going to be obstacles to implement and the in meantime, county jails and parish prisons will continue to be the number one place where the mentally ill are treated,” said Cassidy.
Senate Democrats have proposed a National Police Misconduct Registry as a way to prevent problematic officers from getting hired at another police force. Cassidy says a similar system is already in place for physicians, so a registry for police officers is worth looking at with due process.
“The devil’s in the details, if you will, but I’m certainly open to letting one department know the record of another,” said Cassidy.
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