OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said on Sunday that the “disparagement” of law enforcement is stressing out police officers around the country and that constant attacks on them by politicians and the media have led to fewer “good people” applying to become cops.
Jordan’s remarks during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” came on the heels of five Memphis police officers — all of whom are black — being arrested and charged with murder after beating another black man, Tyre Nichols, during an arrest earlier this month. Nichols died three days later.
“We’re not getting enough good people applying because of the disparagement on police officers,” Jordan said. “I talk with police officers all the time. I remember flying through the Chicago airport, the Phoenix airport, and talking with officers there: Right now, they don’t get enough people applying, taking the test to enter the academy to be an officer because there’s been this ‘defund the police concept’ out there.
“There’s been this attack on law enforcement. And you’re not getting the best of the best. In fact, they may have 100 openings and get ten people to apply,” he added.
Newsmax reported further:
Memphis police chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis, a Black woman, who was herself fired from the Atlanta Police Department, acknowledged the police department has a supervisor shortage and said the lack of a supervisor in the arrest was a “major problem,” The Associated Press reported.
Jordan also pointed to a lack of training for officers after years of Democrats’ “defund the police” sentiment.
“I’m for the best training possible, but what I’m not for is what we saw there,” Jordan told the NBC Sunday newsmagazine. “I don’t know that any training, any ban — there was no chokeholds used there. What they did there was just continue to beat this Mr. Nichols.
“We’ll look at what we think makes sense to help this, to make sure they have the proper training, but no amount of training’s going to change what we saw in that video,” he added.
The five officers charged in the incident are Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III, and Justin Smith.
“I don’t know that there’s any law that can stop that evil that we saw that is just, I mean, just difficult to watch,” he added. “What strikes me is just the lack of respect for human life. I don’t know that any law, any training, any reform is going to change, you know, that this man was handcuffed, they continued to beat him.”
The officers allegedly responsible for Nichols’ death lost the humanity of “life is precious,” as shown in the bodycam footage released Friday night, Jordan continued.
“I was reminded of when we had a hearing probably two years ago, when George Floyd’s brother came and testified in front of the Judiciary Committee,” the Ohio Republican noted. “And it was one of those moments where fact and truth and emotion all came together. And he said something at that hearing, it was actually during the questioning portion of the hearing, he said, ‘Life is precious.’
“And it was one of those moments that grabbed everyone in that hearing, both parties. And the fact that we saw that these individuals, these five individuals, did not have any respect for life. And, again, I don’t think these five guys represent the vast, vast majority of law enforcement, but I don’t know that there’s anything you can do to stop the kind of evil we saw in that video,” he said, adding that in his mind, everything comes back to Democras’ “defund the police” mantra.
“We shouldn’t have this whole attitude about ‘defund the police’ and disparaging police because the vast, vast majority of police officers aren’t doing what we saw in that video,” Jordan concluded.
“A number of my colleagues were, on the other side of the aisle were talking about defunding the police. I got a list of 20 jurisdictions that defunded the police to the tune of over $1 billion total. That’s a problem when you’re trying to attract the best to protect our communities,” he pointed out.
