As unrest grows over the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, attention must be placed on the nation's police departments and about the preservation of human life, Rep. Val Demings, the first female police chief for the Orlando Police Department, said Monday.
"We're at this point because we say the preservation of human life is our top priority," the Florida Democrat said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "It should be the top priority for the community. It certainly should be the top priority for the police departments across this nation. What we saw was a man who had life snuffed out of him right before our very eyes. It was brutal. It was senseless. We have got to deal with that."
Moving forward, the nation needs leadership, Demings said, and that means President Donald Trump should address the issue and acknowledge that system racism has been a problem in America since its inception.
"Let's start trying to affect serious, real change, one police department at a time," said Demings. "I think the federal government, while we do not have direct jurisdiction, we do have a direct obligation to look at policies, practices, procedures, training, powering standards, use of force policies, and come up with some of the best practices to keep people alive."
She also called on a complete ban on neck restraints during arrests.
"If officers decide they don't want to follow the policies or the rules, fire them," she said. "I know we all have a lot of work to do. We have a long way to go. But I do commend the chief in Minneapolis for immediately firing the officers, because it allowed the charges to move more swiftly than they certainly could have, had they still been employed by the police department."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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