Not only does Rep. Scholten support genocide, she recently voted for more policing and protection for cops

For anyone who has been reading the GRIID blog in recent months, you know that I have been very clear about all of the votes and the rhetoric that Rep. Hillary Scholten has engaged in to defend Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinians. All of this was summarized in my post from May 13 with the title, Rep. Hillary Scholten has the blood of Palestinians on her hands, which includes a wanted poster of the war crimes she is complicit in.

Today, I want to point out that Rep. Scholten also has voted for and supports policies and funding for more police and to further protect cops from any real accountability. 

Last week was Police Week in the US, which in and of itself is such a strange Orwellian dynamic. During Police Week, Rep. Scholten made the following statement:

“Every single day, law enforcement officers put their lives on the line to protect their communities. I’ve had the honor of meeting hundreds of these heroes during my time in Congress, and I am in awe of their willingness to put others above self in a time when serving one’s community is all the more challenging. As we work to make policing stronger and safer for all in West Michigan, it’s so important to recognize our safety heroes who do this work every single day. This week, the House came together in a bipartisan way to advance several pieces of legislation that will improve the lives of officers around the country, and I was proud to be a part of this much-needed effort.”

The most problematic point in this statement, and there are many, is Rep. Scholten’s belief that cops keep us safe. There is an important document from the group Interrupting Criminalization, entitled, Cops Don’t Stop Violence, which deconstructs the whole notion of crime, how crime data is misused to serve policing interests and how police consistently engage in their own crimes against people they stop, detain and arrest. 

The report is well researched and full of data, that is presented in a very readable fashion. The report concludes with the following statement:  

It’s time to recognize that decades of pouring more money, resources, and legitimacy into policing in an effort to increase safety have failed — because policing is functioning as it is intended to: to contain, control, and criminalize Black and Brown communities rather than to prevent and reduce violence. It’s time to invest in meeting community needs and building non-police community safety strategies. It’s time to invest in just recovery. 

Beyond the awful rhetoric coming from Rep. Scholten, she lists the following votes:

• H.R. 3325 – The Recruit and Retain Act to authorize law enforcement agencies to use Community Oriented Policing grants for recruitment activities, in an effort to address an unprecedented crisis in hiring and retaining qualified personnel. GRIID – she voted for more public money to be used to recruit more cops, which are state violence workers.
• H.R. 7581 – The Improving Law Enforcement Officer Safety and Wellness Through Data Act to require the U.S. Attorney General–within 270 days of enactment–to submit reports that detail acts of violence against law enforcement officers and the efficacy of programs intended to provide law enforcement with wellness resources. GRIID – Let’s find more money and created programs to assist cops with wellness, but not for the families of the 426 people that the cops have killed so far in 2024, according to https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/. 
• H.R. 7343 – TheDetain and Deport Illegal Aliens Who Assault Cops Act to require that non-U.S. nationals who assault law enforcement officers must be arrested, detained, and removed from the U.S. GRIID – really, this shit. Does Rep. Scholten want us believe that there is an epidemic of undocumented immigrants assaulting cops? PLEASE!
• H.Res. 1213 – A resolution regarding violence against law enforcement officers. GRIID – This resolution begins by stating, “Whereas, beginning in 2020, and in conjunction with the “defund the police” movement, respect for the rule of law and law enforcement officials diminished;” This is very telling, since it equates the Black-led Defund the Police Movement with the lack of respect for the rule of law. How can any reasonable person respect cops who brutalize Black people, or in the case of Patrick Lyoya, shot them in the back of the head while sitting on top of them?

All of these votes by Rep. Hillary Scholten is not only insulting to BIPOC folks, it means she is either unaware of or doesn’t give a damn about the fact that just in the past month cops have killed Samuel Dajon Sterling and Riley Doggett. Is Scholten that clueless? Has the representative sat with these families and felt their pain? No, Rep. Hillary Scholten would prefer to spend more money to recruit cops and vote for legislation and resolutions which provide event more legal protections for the cops. #ACAB