Dem leader compares police shootings to civil rights movement

Assistant House Minority Leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) on Tuesday said the recent trend of police shootings of unarmed African American men bears similarities to the civil rights movement.

Clyburn said that he attended the funeral of Walter Scott in South Carolina. Scott was shot and killed earlier this month by a police officer who has since been charged with murder.

The third-ranking House Democrat, a former history teacher, said the legislative proposals such as requiring police officer to wear body cameras are reminiscent of efforts to secure equality for African Americans in the civil rights era.

{mosads}”I can say that it is clear to me that a lot of the legislation that is being proposed today, a lot of the activities that we are experiencing today, we went through this before,” Clyburn said on the House floor.

“I am hopeful … that Congress would take a long hard look at whether or not there’s a role for us to play in responding to what seems to be an epidemic,” Clyburn added.

In a separate speech following Clyburn, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) says she personally worries about the safety of her male relatives.

“I stand here as an African American woman who represents the state of the New Jersey, but I stand here as a wife, a mother, a sister, an aunt, and a cousin to African American men. And in that capacity, each and every day that one of them leaves our presence and leaves their home, I wonder, will they come back safely?” Watson Coleman said.

Another member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), said Monday that “it feels like open season on black men.”