National Police Association rejects Jan. 6 hearings, says Congress should investigate George Floyd riots
The National Police Association (NPA) is rejecting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot congressional probe as a “dog and pony show” and proposing that Congress conduct a wholly different investigation.
On Wednesday, the United States’ largest police association slammed the hearings as a politically motivated stunt that has no goal of uncovering the truth of the events on Jan. 6, when hundreds of rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday, association spokesperson Betsy Brantner Smith said that Congress should instead hear testimony from the thousands of police officers who were injured during the so-called “summer of love” protests in 2020 that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
"People need to see that police officers go through horrible things, and Jan. 6 was a horrible thing for some of those officers," she said, Fox News reported. "But, quite frankly, I find this whole Jan. 6 Commission, frankly, a dog and pony show. It doesn’t tell the whole story."
Brantner Smith also asked why no questions were being raised over the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt at the Capitol.
"Myself, like millions of Americans, sat there watching the testimony thinking, ‘Wait, where are the police officers who appeared – appeared – to let some of the protesters in?" she asked. "Where is the police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt? In fact, why aren’t we talking about Ashli Babbitt? I mean there’s so much more here."
Brantner Smith’s comments came a day after four police officers from the Capitol Police and D.C. Metro Police Department testified to a House select committee about their experiences on Jan. 6. The spokeswoman told Fox News that the officers were “politicized by Congress,” but stressed that their stories — while important — did not preclude the American public from hearing testimony from the “more than 2,000” police officers who were injured in last year’s riots.
The association spokesperson cited a poll conducted last week by the NPA and Rasmussen Reports, which found that 66 per cent of likely U.S. voters believe Congress should investigate the riots that were spurred by Floyd’s death in May 2020.
"I want the American public to hear about that," Brantner Smith said. "And based on our survey, the American public wants to hear about that. They want to hear the testimony. You know, we have a Las Vegas police officer who is still paralyzed from the Black Lives Matter riots. We have thousands of police officers around the country who are retiring because of post-traumatic stress because of the riots.
"The 2020 riots, we can’t just say the whole George Floyd thing was bad and that’s what cops have to deal with and then watch these four weeping men talk about their experiences, ignoring thousands and thousands of police officers, ignoring their feelings and their experiences and their injuries," she added.
Brantner Smith slammed the “defund the police” movement for creating a hostile climate for police officers across the nation, stating that the policies that came following their demands have only caused harm to black communities.
"The veracity of the defund the police movement is directly related to crime in that area," she continued. "We’re not saving Black lives by defunding the police, by reimagining police, by vilifying the police. And that’s what I think is so disingenuous, and I think it’s confusing for people. Because I think a lot of Americans say, of course, black lives matter. I mean, who doesn’t believe that black lives matter? But yet these policies in the name of Black Lives Matter are actually killing more Black people, damaging the lives of Black people than the police ever have."
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