AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Eleven GOP attorneys general weighed in this week on the congressional debate over policing amid the national push to stop racial bias in law enforcement.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the others sent a letter to congressional leaders urging them to ensure police officer safety as Democrats demand changes in police tactics and accountability.
In the letter, the group acknowledges the “tragic and preventable death of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers” that has driven global protests over police killings of Black people.
ut the lawyers say a few bad officers don’t warrant calls to “defund the police.” The attorneys general also pointed to 2016 attacks that left officers dead in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as evidence of the dangers that police face.
“Many law-enforcement agencies have instituted policies, re-examined training and protocols, and rightly worked with their local communities to build trust and encourage problem solving,” Paxton said in a statement Wednesday.
Paxton joined attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Carolina.
The letter comes as a Republican policing bill stalled with lack of support from Senate Democrats. Polling shows the country overwhelmingly wants changes in policing.
