Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) reacted to the video of Tyre Nichols during a television interview Sunday.
Nichols was beaten by five police officers that have since been fired from the Memphis Police Department and charged with second-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping. The 29 year old would go on to die as a result of his injuries three days after the savage beating.
MEMPHIS POLICE DISSOLVE STREET CRIMES UNIT WHOSE OFFICERS BEAT TYRE NICHOLS
Durbin called for a “national conversation on policing in a responsible, constitutional, and humane way during an ABC This Week appearance, but faced pushback from host Martha Raddatz, who pointed out how the senator has been in office for over 40 years, during which time Congress has accomplished nothing on police reform. The Illinois senator explained that decisions about policing are a “state and local responsibility.”
“Understand that law enforcement by and large is a state and local responsibility,” Durbin said. “That does not absolve us. Under the federal constitution, we have standards, due process standards and others, that we are responsible for. But we need a national conversation on this. We do not need denial or willful indifference. And I think it will include the elements that I mentioned earlier but be larger in scope. We’ve got to talk about keeping America safe, but doing it in a humane, sensible, rational fashion.”
He then agreed with Raddatz that Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Tim Scott (R-SC), who have been working on a bipartisan police reform package for years, should come together again to work on finding common ground and passing something through the Senate.
“Senator Booker, chairman of the Crime Subcommittee, has been working on this for years,” Durbin said. “I think he and Senator Scott should sit down again quickly to see if we can revive that effort.”
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“Let’s be honest about the real situation which Ben Crump described earlier,” he later added. Crump is representing Nichols’s family in the aftermath of his death and has referred to the incident as an example of racial bias, despite all five involved officers being black themselves.
Durbin is halfway through his fifth term in the Senate. He is the second-highest ranking Democrat in the chamber in his position as whip, but also serves as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman.
