Detroit Police Chief Says Rashida Tlaib Should Resign Over ‘Reckless’ Comments: “I’d throw her a goodbye party”
Detroit Police Chief James Craig ripped Dem Rep Rashida Tlaib saying she should resign over her ‘reckless’ comments. “She doesn’t speak for the majority of Detroiters,” Craig told CNN today. “The majority of Detroiters support this police department. They want effective and constitutional policing, and to make statements like this about policing certainly is counterproductive.”
“Early this morning, unprovoked, an individual came into a crime scene and began shooting at our officers,’ Craig said. “While we can’t defensively say those comments are the reason, but the anti-police role is just too much.”
“We don’t disagree with increasing support for mental health,” he said. “We have a massive mental health issue in our country today, and in a large part it is fueled by the pandemic. We get it. We understand it.”
Craig said of Tlaib’s recent walk back that she was “pedaling back because she got so much pushback on her reckless comments. It doesn’t surprise me. She is now trying to take a softer approach.”
“This is not my first time,” said Craig about the potential for rioting after the George Floyd verdict. “I spent my lion’s share in Los Angeles. I had a front seat to Rodney King and the acquittal of the officers and the subsequent unrest in L.A.”
“We support peaceful protesting,” said Craig. “But we also saw a lot of violence, the rioting, the looting, the burning. So all of us who sit in this seat are concerned and I got to tell you, candidly, whichever way the outcome of this trial goes, I don’t think it’s going to make a difference. I truly believe that if he’s acquitted or he is charged we will see violence. I believe it.”
He said Detroit is in a “constant state of readiness.”
“She’s reckless,” Craig told Fox 2 Detroit Sunday. “I’d love to see her resign. I’d throw her a goodbye party.”
“Who is she speaking for?” he added. “When you talk about abolishing police, incarceration, when you talk about safe cities – what do you think the residents in Detroit want? I know. I speak with them.”
“I will not let someone like a Tlaib or a Maxine Waters paint our profession with a broad brush. Are you aware of what the other U.S. rep said as recent as yesterday? You know what she said in response to Brooklyn Center? Get more confrontational,” Craig said.
“I was the first chief in the nation that came out and denounced the murderous cop who killed George Floyd,” he said. “We suport free speech, we support social justice, but are we encouraging, why make reckless statements like that, to create criminal behavior?”
Tlaib’s spokesman Denzel McCampbell said:
“At a time where report after report cites the city of Detroit’s harmful treatment of Black Lives Matter protesters – and the enormous waste of taxpayer money to lose embarrassingly in court after trying to intimidate them, the city’s use of discriminatory facial recognition technology, and the fact that people still do not feel safe despite spending $300 million per year on police – it’s disappointing and unproductive for Chief Craig to run to the cameras to call for Congresswoman Tlaib’s resignation. One would think Chief Craig has more important things to do.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib “doesn’t speak for the majority of Detroiters. The majority of Detroiters support this police department. They want effective and constitutional policing,” says Detroit Police Chief James Craig about the Michigan congresswoman.https://t.co/f9JY9DiUfu pic.twitter.com/CaU9OvVcjx
— New Day (@NewDay) April 19, 2021
‘I’D THROW HER A GOODBYE PARTY’: Detroit Police Chief James Craig had more to say on Sunday, arguing she should step down from office. https://t.co/CHeyKEV5uJ
— FOX 35 Orlando (@fox35orlando) April 19, 2021