Roy Blunt: “today we are on the Senate floor at a time when, once again, we are attempting as a country to reconcile things that…”

“today we are on the Senate floor at a time when, once again, we are attempting as a country to reconcile things that should have been reconciled long ago. The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery shocked and outraged the country. The three of them, in a very short period of time, brought again this division we have in our country where we look at the country and particularly look at law enforcement in two different ways. The discussion I have had with my sons is different from the discussion that many of my African-American friends have had--in fact, as far as I know, all of my African-American friends who ever talked to me about this have had--with their sons. With my sons, I would say: If you get in trouble, look for a police officer. That is not the police officer discussion that African-American fathers often have with their sons. That discussion goes more like this: If you are picked up by the police, do exactly what you are told until I get there, and we will straighten it out once I get there. Those are the two views of what happens. We see in all of these cases some reason to believe that those concerns are absolute and legitimate. Because of that, there is a wide support for the protests going on around the country.…”