Pressley on protests, progressive victories: U.S. seeing ‘a moment of reckoning’
"We should not have to incentivize justice," the congresswoman told MSNBC.
Related Links
In the wake of impassioned and sustained protests for racial justice and a wave of successes by Black progressives in Democratic primaries, Ayanna Pressley says the U.S. is experiencing “a moment of reckoning.”
The representative for Massachusetts’ 7th Congressional District spoke with MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt Sunday while bills on police reform sat stagnant in Congress.
Pressley said that Democrats should not wait to push further on regulating police departments. While she praised the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed in the Democrat-led House last week but is expected to die in the Republican-dominated Senate, she said the Democratic party must go further.
She advocated for her own bill co-written with independent representative Justin Amash of Michigan to eliminate qualified immunity for police officers, which detractors say protects law enforcement complicit in illegal acts and brutality.
“We can’t afford to wait. How many Black lives have been brutalized, choked, lynched, surveyed, profiled, policed unjustly?” Pressley asked. “The Senate bill was just buzzwords. We should not have to incentivize people treating others humanely. We should not have to incentivize justice.”
She said that the shifting cultural opinion on race and policing contributed to the headways that Black progressive candidates made in key Democratic primaries last Tuesday. Pressley herself became the first Black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts during a similar electoral wave that carried her and other progressive women of color to the House.
“There’s a culture shift that is underway where people are affirming that Black lives matter,” Pressley said. “In this moment with Tuesday’s victories, I think we’re also affirming that Black leadership matters, that Black representation matters, and it is going to yield greater racial justice within the halls of Congress.”
Upstart Black leaders from last week’s primaries include Jamaal Bowman, a middle school principal who ousted longtime incumbent Eliot Engel in New York’s 16th Congressional District; Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres, who hold formidable leads in crowded competitions for open seats in NY-15 and NY-17 and would be the first openly gay Black members of Congress; and Charles Booker, who is essentially tied with party favorite Amy McGrath in the Kentucky Senate primary after a week of ballot counting. Many elections are still not officially called because of the time needed to process mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Watch more of the interview below:
<
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com