Bass: Fraternal Order of Police ‘very supportive’ of national standards

Congressional Black Caucus Chair Karen Bass (D-Calif.) expressed optimism that proposed policing reforms could garner broad support, saying Sunday that the nation’s largest police organization had expressed support for some of House Democrats’ proposals.

Asked by Fox News’ Chris Wallace whether she was worried about “tying the hands of police” with proposed reforms, Bass responded that she wasn’t.

“There’s a lot of different parts to the bill,” she said on “Fox News Sunday,” referring to legislation unveiled by House Democrats last week. “One of the very significant parts is national standards, training and accreditation and we’re finding a lot of support from police officers.”

“Yesterday I had an hour-long meeting with the Fraternal Order of Police, and they are very supportive of the idea of national standards and significant training,” she continued. “You should be accredited to be a police officer. Any profession that allows you to use lethal force, there should be very significant training.”

Wallace noted that momentum has stalled on movements for racial justice and police reform in the past and asked how confident Bass was that the same thing would not occur now.

“At the end of the day, legislation is always about compromise, but I am extremely confident this time,” Bass said.

“The difference now is there is a significant awareness, people are in the streets and I just hate when it gets reduced to violence, but the majority of the protests, as you know, over the past few weeks have been peaceful,” she added. “[T]he pressure is on us and I really feel we’re going to act, and the conversations with my Republican colleagues even at our first hearing has very been positive.”

Wallace also pressed Bass on policies President Trump has touted as improving the lives of African Americans, including a historic low in black unemployment before the coronavirus pandemic and making funding to historically black colleges and universities permanent, asking if Trump “[has] a point” in citing that record.

“I would give him credit if there was some policy, some program that he put in place that contributed to that,” Bass responded, saying the unemployment rate was the result of a strong economy rather than any targeted intervention for African Americans. Last week’s report showing an unexpected decline in unemployment overall also showed an increase in black unemployment.