We Are Now Faced With Yet Another Crisis
Greetings,
For several months now, our country has been dealing with two simultaneous crises– a health pandemic that has claimed the lives of over 110,000 Americans and over 383,000 people across the globe, and an economic crisis that claimed the jobs of over 40 million Americans.
In the midst of these two crises, we are now faced with yet another crisis: a crisis of racial division and anger.
On Memorial Day, George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis after a police officer kneeled on his neck for eight long minutes. There were no legitimate law enforcement justifications for what happened to George Floyd. None. Everyone agrees: we witnessed police brutality and abuse of power. And that is why the Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation into the police officers’ conduct and they are being prosecuted.
For so many Americans, watching the death of Mr. Floyd brought forth the long history of racial discrimination in this country – a history that began with centuries of slavery, and a history that has seen Jim Crow laws, the Ku Klux Klan, and overt and implicit discrimination. African-Americans too often fear interactions with law enforcement and fear that their rights will not be protected.
In the last two weeks, many Americans in Texas and across this country exercised their First Amendment right to speak out for justice and against police brutality. Unfortunately, there are radicals who have cynically taken advantage of these protests to sow division and fear, and to engage in violent assaults and looting.
None of us have the right to burn the cars of police officers, to shatter shop windows, and to engage in acts of terror. If a police officer breaks the law – as the police officers did who killed George Floyd – he or she should be prosecuted. But when we are looking to protect our families, our children, the people we call on to be our first line of defense are the men and women in blue.
The rioting and destruction we’re seeing has also shone a light on organizations that are coordinating and promoting this kind of looting – organizations like Antifa. I’ve long called for the administration to call Antifa for what it is: a domestic terrorist organization. Last year, I introduced legislation condemning the violent acts carried out by Antifa members and calling for the designation of the group as a domestic terrorist organization. This week, President Trump rightly announced that Antifa would be designated a domestic terrorist organization. That means we can use law enforcement resources to track down those funding and organizing acts of violence and criminal activity.
While we’ve experienced tough moments in the last two weeks, I agree with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that the arc of history bends toward justice, and that we want to live in a nation where we are judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character.
Earlier this week, I spoke on the Senate floor and appeared on Fox News’ ‘Outnumbered Overtime w/ Harris Faulkner’ as well as AEI’s ‘What the Hell is Going On’ podcast to discuss George Floyd’s death and the violent riots that have broken out across the country. I also spoke with reporters, calling for strong leadership to protect all Americans and to fairly and equally enforce the law.
In the midst of the challenges of the past two weeks, there is some good news. Today we learned that the U.S. economy gained 2.5 million jobs in the past month and unemployment dropped to 13.3 percent. Further, President Trump signed into law bipartisan legislation Congress passed this week to provide flexibility to employers using Payment Protection Program (PPP) loans so job creators can hire back their employees and open up their doors again.
As we continue to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the economic crisis, and those who seek to sow division among us, I know that if we stick together and support one another, we will come through these three crises stronger than before.
Keep Texas Strong,
Ted Cruz
ADDITIONAL FROM SEN. CRUZ
For more information and additional resources on the coronavirus pandemic, visit www.cruz.senate.gov/coronavirus/.
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