Attorney General William Barr plans to condemn rioting and denounce the “Russiagate” scandal while testifying to Congress on Tuesday, according to his leaked opening statement. …
Attorney General William Barr plans to condemn rioting and denounce the “Russiagate” scandal while testifying to Congress on Tuesday, according to his leaked opening statement. Barr said it’s important to distinguish between peaceful protesters and people who commit crimes. “To state what should be obvious, peaceful protesters do not throw explosives into federal courthouses, tear down plywood with crowbars, or launch fecal matter at federal officers. Such acts are in fact federal crimes under statutes enacted by this Congress,” Barr wrote. Two hundred and thirty-eight people face federal charges related to the unrest seen across the country since the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis man, in police custody on Memorial Day, the Department of Justice said Monday. Efforts to reform institutions in the last 50 years or so have been “increasingly successful,” pointing to police forces becoming more diverse and the fact that police shootings of unarmed persons are rare, with just 19 taking place so far this year, according to Barr. “Nevertheless, every instance of excessive force is unacceptable and must be addressed, as is happening now in Minneapolis,” he will tell lawmakers. Barr warned against demonizing the police and efforts to defund police departments. That will only lead to spikes in crime, which is already happening in most major cities in the United States in the past months. “When the police are attacked, when they are defunded, when they are driven out of urban communities, it is black lives that will suffer most from their absence,” Barr wrote. The federal government this month surged assets to Portland to deal with violent anarchists there who continue assaulting a U. S. courthouse and has sent extra officers and agents to Seattle, Chicago, and Albuquerque, N.
