WASHINGTON (SBG) - Senator Tim Scott spent months working with Democratic Senator Cory Booker on police reform legislation before negotiations fell apart at the end of September. While Senator Scott says he thinks both sides had good intentions, he’s disappointed the Democrats walked away from the negotiation table on the issue.
“The key breakdown between the two sides was number one, whether or not we should have a nationalization of local police through standards,” said Senator Tim Scott to The National Desk’s Jan Jeffcoat. “I disagree with nationalizing local police. I do agree with encouraging the highest standards.”
Senator Scott says the second area of disagreement was about police funding.
“There were about 11 sections of the legislation that either reduced funding, made local departments ineligible for funding, or simply made it harder for police to do their jobs with fewer resources,” said Senator Scott.
The Supreme Court sided with police officers earlier this week in favor of qualified immunity in two separate cases, ruling that those officers should be granted the protection which shields them from civil liabilities.
“I think the ruling around qualified immunity is very important for communities that are desperately wanting more character-driven officers patrolling the streets,” said Senator Scott. “That concept of community policing requires more officers to be comfortable and that ruling in the courts on qualified immunity is a very important step.”
Qualified immunity was not a roadblock to police reform negotiations, according to Senator Scott - he says both sides had “solved that issue and moved on.”
“That was good news in the police reform negotiations, and it's better news for those citizens living in high crime areas that will have the police presence to respond to the challenges that are within their communities,” said Senator Scott.
Senator Scott says he has been talking with intermediators to return to police reform negotiations and is “optimistic.”
“If we do what we're supposed to do, we put the American people and marginalized communities first, forget about Republicans and Democrats, forget about left and right, let's just think about families mired in poverty in very vulnerable situations. Let’s solve problems on behalf of folks who cannot do it for themselves,” said Senator Scott. “If both sides do that, then we'll be back at the table this year.”
President Biden is currently hitting a roadblock on Capitol Hill as Democrats fail to come together to pass both the infrastructure and social spending bills. There have been discussions about scaling the $3.5 trillion spending bill down in order to bring Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema on board.
“The truth is that the cost of the reconciliation or the tax and spending plan is one issue. A scarier issue is the content,” said Senator Scott. “There's no simple way to think about the monstrosity of that package, except for this way: It does more harm than it does good, it creates more debt than it alleviates issues.”
Senator Scott is also focused on the cost of the package on the American people.
“A two-plus trillion-dollar tax increase is not free,” said Senator Scott. “This package, and all the preceding packages, aren’t anything other than expensive for working-class, paycheck-to-paycheck folks who are doing their best to make their ends meet.”