Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Black GOP Senator Talks About Being Pulled Over By Police 7 Times In One Year

Black GOP Senator Talks About Being Pulled Over By Police 7 Times In One Year

[DIGEST: Huffington Post, NPR]

On Wednesday, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott––the only black senator at the Republican conference and one of just two in the upper chamber––delivered a personal speech on the Senate floor addressing the “deep divide” between communities and law enforcement. In the course of one year as an elected official, Scott asserted, he has been pulled over by law enforcement no less than seven times. "Was I speeding sometimes? Sure,” he admitted. “But the vast majority of the time I was pulled over for driving a new car in the wrong neighborhood or something else just as trivial." Scott’s address is the second of three in response to a lone gunman shooting and killing five officers in Dallas last week.


Scott’s experiences underscored a need to acknowledge the “trust gap” between the black community and police: “[Because] while so many officers do good ― and we should be very thankful in support of all those officers that do good ― some simply do not. I’ve experienced it myself,” he said. He then described several encounters with police officers, including one where he was stopped because the officer suspected his car had been stolen. Scott’s brother, a major with the U.S. Army, experienced a similar incident. He then told the story of one of his staffers, who was "pulled over so many times here in D.C. for absolutely no reason other than driving a nice car." The staffer eventually traded in his Chrysler for a “more obscure form of transportation” to avoid being targeted.

Credit: Source.

Scott’s professional status has not spared him from the humiliation of racial profiling. He recalled the time a Capitol police officer demanded Scott show identification. “It’s easy to identify a U.S. senator by our pin,” Scott said. “I recall walking into an office building just last year after being here for five years on the Capitol, and the officer looked at me, with a little attitude, and said: ‘The pin, I know. You, I don’t. Show me your ID.’ I’ll tell you, I was thinking to myself, ‘Either he thinks I’m committing a crime, impersonating a member of Congress’― or, or what? Well, I’ll tell you that later that evening I received a phone call from his supervisor apologizing for the behavior. Mr. President, that is at least the third phone call that I’ve received from a supervisor or the chief of police since I’ve been in the Senate.”

Scott implored his colleagues in the Senate to “imagine the frustration, the irritation, the sense of a loss of dignity that accompanies each of those stops." He ended his speech with a 

plea to his fellow senators to “recognize that just because you do not feel the pain, the anguish of another, does not mean it does not exist." Scott pledged to offer solutions “on how we get to where we need to go” and plans to speak further on the issue today.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) praised Scott for his honesty. “We don’t have enough diversity here,” Boxer said. “Let me just be clear: As much as all of us want to walk in each other’s shoes, because each of us has different experiences in our lives, it really matters who’s in the room, who’s at the microphone and who’s sharing the truth. And you have shared a truth with us today.”

The deeply personal speech comes after two highly publicized incidents in which black men were killed by police officers, both of which were captured live on video. Last Tuesday, Alton Sterling, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was shot and killed during an altercation with two police officers. The officers responded to an anonymous tip about a man threatening people with a gun outside a convenience store. Video footage from eyewitnesses shows police ordering Sterling to get on the ground before tackling him and pinning him down. Sterling was shot several times and killed. Witnesses later confirmed that Sterling did have a gun in his pocket, but that he never showed anyone the weapon.

Alton Sterling. (Credit: Source.)

The following day, Philando Castile was shot and killed by an officer during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minnesota while his fiancée and 4-year old daughter sat in the car. The shooting made headlines after Castille’s fiancée, Diamond Reynolds, livestreamed the bloody aftermath on Facebook. According to Reynolds, Castille told the officer he had a firearm he was licensed to carry. The officer shot him as he reached into his pocket for his wallet and identification.

The issues are certain to shift the conversation during an already heated presidential election which has highlighted gun violence and inequity within the criminal justice reform as crucial issues.

More from News

Chris Pratt
@prattprattpratt/X

Chris Pratt Roasted For Pretending To Close His Eyes While Praying In Viral Video

Chris Pratt is being roasted once again for what many consider yet another bit of performative Christianity.

Pratt, like many religious types, has been seizing the ongoing social media discourse about Charlie Kirk's death as an opportunity to highlight his faith.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Trump Ripped After Griping About 'Sissy' New NFL Kickoff Rule In Unhinged Rant

President Donald Trump was criticized after he complained about the NFL's new "Dynamic Kickoff" rule that is designed to make playing football safer, calling it "sissy" football in a Monday morning post on Truth Social.

Under the previous rules, kickoffs began at the kicking team’s 35-yard line, with the goal of sending the ball as far as possible to pin the opposing offense deep in its own territory. The receiving team would try to advance the ball, which would often lead to high-speed collisions as players sprinted directly at each other.

Keep ReadingShow less
Mehdi Hasan; JD Vance
Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Crooked Media; Doug Mills/Pool/Getty Images

Political Commentator Epically Fact-Checks Vance's Baseless Claims About Political Violence

In the wake of far-right activist Charlie Kirk's assassination, Vice President JD Vance has stepped up his attacks on leftists, this time by baselessly claiming that the far-left is more likely to commit political violence than the far-right.

Vance hosted a special episode of Kirk's podcast to attack what he referred to as “the lunatics in American politics" and said without any evidence that the suspect in Kirk's killing was motivated by far-left ideology.

Keep ReadingShow less
group of people using laptop computers in an office
Annie Spratt on Unsplash

People Open Up About The Biggest Morons They've Ever Worked With

Have you ever met someone who made you wonder how they survive day-to-day? Simple tasks seem beyond their ccapabilities.

Have you ever worked with someone whose skills are completely inadequate for sustainment of life—let alone the needs of the job?

Keep ReadingShow less
Rafael "Ted" Cruz; screenshot of video Cruz posted on X
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; @tedcruz/X

Ted Cruz Dragged Over Cringey Video Of Him Painting Over Charlie Kirk Graffiti In Houston

On Sunday, Texas MAGA Republican Senator Rafael "Ted" Cruz exploited graffiti—allegedly found on a busy roadway in Houston—that was unkind toward murdered Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, for a self-promoting photo-op and video.

He then posted both still images and the video on X.

Keep ReadingShow less