GIVING UP: Jim Jordan claims police reform isn’t possible after Memphis PD actions

GIVING UP: Jim Jordan claims police reform isn't possible after Memphis PD actions

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), unwittingly made the case for police reform in an interview with MSNBC’s Meet the Press host, Chuck Todd, on Sunday while discussing the death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of five Memphis police officers.

“No amount of training is going to change what we saw in that video,” Congressman Jordan told Todd.

“I don’t know that there are any laws that can stop the evil that we saw. That is just difficult to watch. What strikes me is just the lack of respect for human life. So, I don’t know that any law, any training, any reform is gonna change.”

Watch the video below. 

“This man was handcuffed – they continued to beat him,” Rep. Jordan said.

While Jordan may be on the right track, he still managed to miss the mark.

Instead, he placated the Blue Lives Matter crowd with a mix of feigned condemnation and complacency that nothing Democrats propose will make a difference.

“I don’t think that these five guys represent the vast, vast majority of law enforcement,” he told Todd.

“I don’t think there’s anything you can do to stop the kind of evil we saw in this video,” Jordan repeated.

Except there is.

It’s called accountability. Holding the officers responsible for their egregious actions and taking measures to insure that what happened to Tyre Nichols’ doesn’t happen to anyone else.

Chuck Todd has been in rare form lately. The “both sides” whataboutism host has seemingly had a lightbulb moment that has led him to actually pursue follow-up questions when his guests make questionable assertions.

But deflecting is the Republican way, so Rep. Jordan pivoted to blaming calls for police officer accountability to having contributed to the decline in applications to serve on police forces.

“The other thing that needs to frankly happen is we’re not getting enough good people applying because of the disparagement on police officers,” Jordan told Todd.

“They don’t get enough people applying, taking the test to enter the academy, to be an officer because there’s been this defund the police concept out there,” he continued. “There’s been this attack on law enforcement, and you’re not getting the best of the best.”

As instances of police brutality are amplified, the right-wing attempt to attack protestors fed up with inequities in the police and judicial systems is coming under intense scrutiny.

The world has seen another man have his life breath taken from them on camera in the United States and is enraged. Rightfully so.

As we slide deeper into the abyss of partisan politics, culture wars, and outright ignorance of inequity and injustice in the nation that once was a democratic beacon for the world – this is where we are.

It’s not a pretty picture.

Original reporting by Lauren Sforza at The Hill.

Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick

Ty Ross

News journalist for Washington Press and Occupy Democrats.