Senator Ted Cruz is sick and tired of the unchecked violence taking place in cities like Portland, Chicago, Seattle, and many other American cities.
Like most Americans, he believes it is time that the leaders of these cities are held accountable for their refusal to allow police to control the growing violence.
On Tuesday, Senator Cruz said he will introduce a bill which would allow effected citizens to sue the cities for failed policies resulting in damages.
Our friends at Fox News have the story:
Democratic politicians should be held accountable for “letting their cities burn,” Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz told “America’s Newsroom” on Tuesday.
Cruz made the comment following violent protests in several cities. On Saturday, more than half a dozen U.S. cities experienced rioting and lawlessness – with the mayhem including damage to federal buildings and local police precincts, and a fatal shooting in Austin, Texas.
Similar protests and violent demonstrations have been seen across the country following the death of George Floyd, a Black man in Minnesota who died while in police custody. A video of the May 25 encounter with police officers showed a White officer putting his knee on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes.
Cruz also reacted on Tuesday to a Wall Street Journal editorial published Monday titled, "A Weekend of Urban Anarchy.”
“The weekend’s events were a deliberate assault on public and private property, law enforcement, and public order,” the editorial board wrote. “Lawlessness begets lawlessness, and in recent weeks we’ve seen reports of vigilantes and far-right activists joining the melee from Richmond to Philadelphia. Local officials are allowing this disorder to occur, and the more it is indulged the worse it is likely to get.”
In response, Cruz said: “We’re seeing growing violence, we’re seeing physical assault, we’re seeing radicals, who are trying to really tear down our society and none of this should be complicated.
“You have a right to protest. I have a right to protest peacefully. We have a right to speak our minds. The First Amendment protects that,” he continued.
“What you or I don’t have a right to do is hurt somebody else. You don't have the right to physically assault someone else, to firebomb a police car, to loot and destroy a small business, to murder a police officer and sadly we’ve seen all of that in riots throughout the country.”
Cruz went on to say that “all of that at the same time is being facilitated and even encouraged by democratic politicians who have made a very cynical decision not to allow the police officers to actually do their job and protect physical safety, protect property and so they’ve ordered the police officers to pull back and they’re letting their cities burn.”
Cruz said as a result he introduced legislation last week called the Restitution for Economic losses Caused by Leaders who Allow Insurrection and Mayhem, or the RECLAIM Act, which would “hold state and local officials liable when rioters establish lawless ‘autonomous zones' and officials abdicate their duty to protect their citizens.”
Cruz explained on Tuesday that “if you are injured or if your property is damaged during a riot, and the local officials have made the deliberate decision to withhold police protection” the bill would allow a person to sue that city or municipality and “get triple damages.”
“In addition any city that refuses to provide police protection during a riot is denied eligibility for federal funds because what these Democratic mayors and governors are doing, it is wrong,” Cruz said. “It’s endangering people's lives and it's denying the basic civil rights that every American is entitled to.”
This is fantastic idea of course, especially considering that these cities have still done absolutely nothing to protect their citizens.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkin claimed on Friday that law enforcement would do "everything in their power" to protect citizens.
Police Chief Carmen Best essentially said on the same day that businesses were on their own, rendering Mayor Durkin's promise obsolete.
The Daily Caller with more on that story:
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best told local businesses Friday that due to new city council regulations, the police force won’t intervene in the event of more riots.
“Please also know that the City Council Ordinance 119805 Crowd Control Tool goes into effect this weekend on Sunday, July 26, 2020. This ordinance bans Seattle Police officers the use of less lethal tools, including pepper spray that is commonly used to disperse crowds that have turned violent,” a letter addressed to businesses and residents in the city stated.
Best argued that this has resulted in her police officers having “NO ability to safely intercede to preserve property in the midst of a large, violent crowd.”
On Thursday, Best also informed the city council that she believes it has hamstrung the Seattle police and that she will have to avoid crowd control measures in the future in the interests of officer safety.
Best noted that the city remains under attack.
“It is a fact that there are groups and individuals who are intent on destruction in our City. Yes, we also have seen weeks of peaceful demonstrations, but two recent events (Sunday, July 19th and Wednesday, July 22nd) have included wide-scale property destruction and attacks on officers, injuring more than a dozen, some significantly,” according to the correspondence.
Here's Senator Cruz explaining the bill on Fox News.
Join the conversation!
Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!