Fudge on police shootings: Officers want to go home each night, and ‘so do we’

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge on Wednesday weighed in on the conversation regarding policing in America, writing on Twitter, “I understand every police officer wants to go home safely at night. So do we,” days after the fatal shooting of a Black man in a Minneapolis suburb.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Fudge, a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said, “Most officers are good and decent people. The good ones rarely pull their weapons.”

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— Secretary Marcia L. Fudge (@SecFudge) April 14, 2021

She continued, writing that the good ones “do not approach traffic stops with their guns drawn without good reason. They do not place children on the ground in handcuffs with guns trained on them. They do not mace and handcuff nine-year-olds. They do not shoot fleeing suspects in the back.”

“The good ones use their authority to keep the peace, to deescalate a situation whenever possible, and to serve the people,” she added.

These comments come after a police officer fatally shot 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minn.

Wright’s death was ruled a homicide by the Hennepin County medical examiner. The city’s police chief, who resigned two days after the incident, said he believes the officer, who was later identified as Kim Potter, meant to draw her Taser but mistakenly pulled her gun instead.

On Tuesday, Potter resigned from the Brooklyn Center Police Department effective immediately.

Fudge, in her statement, expressed her condolences for Wright’s family, writing “The family of Daunte Wright now shares in the grief that has overwhelmed far too many Black and brown families in America.”

The shooting occurred in a city just north of Minneapolis, where the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who is accused of murdering George Floyd, is underway.

Chauvin is on trial for three criminal counts in connection to Floyd’s death, after video footage captured him kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes last May.