Rashida Tlaib — Rep. Tlaib Talks Reimagining Public Safety, SCOTUS & More on Flashpoint with Devin Scillian

It can be

Speaker 1: difficult for the newer members of Congress to break through to be heard among 435 voices in the House. But as a member of the so-called squad, Rashida Tlaib has been a lightning rod, and she was again this week with a tweet that took aim at police violence and called for an end to policing and incarceration. That was just part of a very busy week on Capitol Hill, and I'm so glad to have Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib back with us again today on Flashpoint. Congressman, I appreciate the time, and right from the jump, let's start with your tweet, which obviously your usual detractors jumped all over it, but so did some of the people that we consider I think to be your allies, people like Jim Clyburn

Speaker 2: and Bernie Sanders. Do you want to explain a little bit about what it was you meant and how you feel like the reaction to it has gone

Yeah, I

Speaker 3: think for many of us, we see continuing this investment in policing, policing to address homelessness in our country, to address children that are struggling in school. You know, I grew up in a school where we had counselors and nurses, and now those folks have been replaced by police. And that is not helping people be safe in our country. We also have over and over again seen across the nation more people. Black lives killed by state-funded government. That's policing with no sense of accountability at all. And I think for many of us, especially myself, I truly believe in investing in our community, especially when we see budgets like $300 million for Detroit Police Department, while only $8 to $9 million for public health. we wonder why so many of our neighbors are with covid or so many of our neighbors are struggling with public health issues our communities deserve more we deserve an investment in our people and not invested in criminalizing the poor and targeting people uh solely based on uh the fact that they're african-american or a number

Speaker 4: of things and that's what we continue to see over and over again across the country

I

Speaker 1: think it's one thing to talk about reprioritization, but you represent a district that has a real crime problem. I'm not sure many of your constituents would not want someone

to be

Speaker 1: there when they picked up the phone to call police. It's

Speaker 3: interesting that I'm saying, that I'm not saying no one should be there. I'm saying, why are we having police departments show up for evictions and not social workers, right? Why all of a sudden police are being called to a school if a child is having issues instead of somebody that might be a mental health expert? All of us deserve to be safe, Devin, and not just some of us. And I am saying that we need to stop trying to address issues. these kinds of various issues with increasing policing. By the way, our jails are full of folks that shouldn't be in the jail, mental health folks, homeless folks. These are people that need help. But also really important here is to understand that we spend such an extreme amount on policing, but yet you just said

are

Speaker 3: we actually safer? That is the question and experts have said over and over again. No amount of training, these kinds of approaches is changing the fact that public safety continues to be an issue. It's because

Speaker 5: we're not addressing real issues that impact people and families, especially children. But

Speaker 1: when you say an end to incarceration, are you saying that you don't think that the people who launched the attack on the Capitol or that apparently planned to try to Good night. You don't think those

Speaker 6: folks ought to be in

Speaker 7: jail? And see, there it is, twisting. I said incarceration, I just told folks

Speaker 3: look at who's in jail. Right now, many people that are incarcerated are waiting for hearings because the system is so deteriorating

Speaker 8: Absolutely right, there's no doubt

Speaker 3: about that. There are folks that are filled in. I mean, even I was just talking to a colleague that represents Cook County. And she said, Rashida, most of the folks in Cook County jail right now are mental

health

Speaker 3: Folks that are mentally ill, they shouldn't belong in jail. When I go to hospitals and I see police officers throughout the ER, I said, what's going on? And they said that they need those police officers here because they have folks

that are

Speaker 3: being called on that are homeless, that are mentally ill or having struggles or whatever those issues are. So, Devin, I want to invest in what I saw as a child. I want a counselor in the school. I want a nurse in the school. should it be they all have been replaced with policing and and guess what the school to prison pipeline is real and i'm done i'm done trying to continue to say that we need more training just in minnesota mr castle after he was murdered by police they spent 12 million dollars devon on training the police and yet we just saw george floyd be murdered in the same state that spent that much money and then now dante And so I really urge all of folks to please listen to what I'm trying to convey is we can do better because all of us deserve to be safe, not just some of us. And when we continue to invest in things that are just not working and making us safe, what we end up

is a

Speaker 3: system that is

Speaker 5: targeting people and killing people. Black lives at a higher number

Speaker 9: But there are thousands and thousands of interactions

Speaker 1: between the public and police that happen every day that get no attention because they go the way they're supposed to. Are you worried about painting with too broad of a brush? I mean, clearly we have too many, too many lives lost at the hands of police, too many bad interactions. But is it all that much of a disaster as your tweet seemed

Speaker 2: to suggest that it

is? Does it

Speaker 10: need $300 million while we only spend $9 million on public health? That's the

Speaker 3: question. Are we spending, you know, are we trying to police away homelessness? Are we trying to police away theills and various issues that we continue to see in our country and even in the state of Michigan? I just want to reiterate the importance that I'm not saying that you don't deserve public safety. You do. But try to reimagine what that could look like

you

Speaker 3: shouldn't have a police officer at your door if you're getting evicted. You should have someone that possibly is a social worker, somebody that can help you. I really believe many of these police officers and others, and I can't speak on behalf of all of them, but I bet you they are not trained to be involved in domestic abuse or violence or dealing with the various issues and problems and challenges that our school districts are facing because children are not getting the services they need. So it's really important that... Folks are listening to me when I say public safety means addressing some of the really chronic problems in our neighborhoods, in our communities. Police officers are not the answer. We've

Speaker 12: talked so much about how mental health is on this program. We've talked about mental health being at the heart of so many

Speaker 1: of our problems. I want to move to some of the other issues that have come up through Capitol Hill this past week, which some of them are exactly what I think you and a number of your more liberal colleagues, colleagues have been demanding and wanting, and yet you find some pushback within your own party and from your own president. This idea of expanding the Supreme Court, generally Americans don't love this idea according to polls. And I think the idea among some is that it's a short way to address or a short term address of a problem that would go on forever in perpetuity. And I mean

how many? do

Speaker 1: we end up eventually with 50 Supreme Court justices because we just keep kind of moving up the bat to try to to try to win the game here? Yeah

Speaker 7: look, our Supreme Court has been expanded

Speaker 3: in the past. This is not the first time. And it's also been shrunk in the past. But one thing I know is many of us and many folks in my community, I know for a fact do not feel represented and feel very much that the Supreme Court as it is, is fair and that it really meets the demands of our democracy. And I think it's really critically important that we know that Republicans have tainted that process. They have created a system now where many of the bills that we pass in Congress now end up in the hands of the Supreme Court that make decisions on the most vulnerable, our LGBTQ+ neighbors, our poor communities, our immigrant neighbors. Congresswoman

Speaker 13: it kind of started

Speaker 1: with Harry Reid, didn't it? When he decided that we no longer needed 60 votes in the Senate to confirm a Supreme Court justice, that it needed to be a simple majority

And I

Speaker 1: think some people say that is the cautionary tale here. Don't change the rules that you'll have to live with later when you might not like the result

Look

Speaker 14: you know, many of these rules are structures that have been set up actually to only

Speaker 3: help a few in our country. I want to be very specific. The Supreme Court has watered down the Civil Rights Act. People don't even realize that we can't even bring cases now forward because a number of case laws that have come, court cases have come out of the Supreme Court that limits people being able to push against racist policies and structures that we see now that are killing so many of our brown and black brothers and sisters across the country. I think it's really important that you are hearing and listening to why we think it's unfair and that our democracy is weakened by the fact that we don't have a much more broad, diverse Supreme Court that represents our nation. And I think folks do believe that to be the case. And this is an equal branch of government. This is a branch of government that impacts everything that the president does. what the united states congress does and i think we at least need to hear out and understand what it would mean to be able to increase the voices on this court that might be more reflective of the values of our country

Speaker 1: let me let you address this then in a philosophical way because we're looking at that issue we're looking at now we've got a a bill that would start to study the idea of reparations for slavery uh as we look at the infrastructure uh the fight over infrastructure in that bill. There are a lot of people in America who believe that the middle is lost right now and that both parties are being controlled and driven by the extremes, the outsides of the party. I think you would describe yourself as a more liberal member of the Democratic Party rather than someone who's

Speaker 15: in the American middle. I think a lot of people fear that the middle is being left behind. Go ahead. And

Speaker 16: Devin, I get

Speaker 3: that, and I want folks to stop with the labeling. I care deeply about people getting access to health care. We may not agree on the pathway of getting there. I may be on a different timeline, but I promise you, I want you to have good health care in our country. I want you to feel valued in our country. I never want to feel... have a woman go to workplace and feel unsafe because she's a woman in the workplace. I don't want a child to be left at home because the family can't afford childcare. All of those things, I think we all in a nation agree, we need access to those kinds of programmings and those safety nets that allow people to have access to thrive. people will label us here in Congress. And I know they weren't ready for someone like me that is moving with a sense of urgency saying, "Our people have waited too long, Devin." My folks have blighted homes near their homes. Some are retiring with very little in the Western way. And I talk to people all the time about

this

Speaker 3: People are living with a sense that government is not about them, that government is not about people. And all I can say is all of the rhetoric in between, that is what makes folks feel like they're not heard. But I want folks to please realize that I hear you. And I think a lot of new colleagues that are coming in, They're coming in with this lived experiences. I'm the eldest of 14. I've been taking care of people all my life. I grew up in southwest Detroit, where I graduated from high school and got driver's education, got my ID, was able to get through a Pell Grant to Wayne State University. Those are the same programs that are now gone. They're gone, Devon, and that is what's hurting my neighbors, no matter what, if you call them middle people, low income people, whatever, whoever they are, even if they're doing well, those people still don't feel like our government, people in Congress are working for them. And it doesn't help that the majority of my colleagues are millionaires. They're in an income bracket that is completely disconnected with the pain of living check by check. of the pain of retiring with really no safety net and making sure they can afford their prescription drugs and so much more, Devin. So I just want people to know I represent the 13th district, but sometimes when I speak, I get letters from across the country saying, "Please help me. I cannot believe that I have MS and I can't have quality health care in the richest country in the world

Speaker 9: we've got to leave it there. But I think you summed it up exactly. There's people all over the political spectrum right now who don't feel that they are being heard, no doubt about it. Rashida Tlaib, thanks so much for the time. Stay safe and we'll talk to you again soon

You

Speaker 17: too, thank you

Speaker 9: You bet. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib