Rep. Fulcher opposes defunding police

Idaho Congressman Russ Fulcher is opposed to calls from some to defund police departments following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis while in the custody of law enforcement.
 Fulcher, a first-term Republican from Idaho’s Congressional District 1, said it should be up to states to implement any police reforms.
 He said he is concerned that trying to force change through legislation in Congress would usurp local control and “federalize” local law enforcement.
 Fulcher voted against a police reform bill that passed in the Democrat-controlled U.S. House 236-181 along party lines on June 25. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would ban no-knock warrants and hold police officers personally liable for damages in lawsuits, among other measures.
 In response to the police defunding debate, Fulcher said he has lined up 20 co-sponsors of a bill (HR 1013) he introduced on June 22 that would require any jurisdication in the U.S. that defunds or dismantles its police department to also review rules that hinder allowing citizens to buy and own guns for protection.
 The text of the bill notes that the “right to defend oneself is a God-given natural right enshrined in the Constitution and upheld in English common law recent Supreme Court cases.”
 The legislation acknowledges the killing of George Floyd was a horrific and despicable act and racism in any form is wrong and should not be tolerated.
 He said he would support additional training for police and data sharing between law enforcement agenices. The power of big city police unions to block the release of misconduct and complaints lodged against officers allows the occasional bad apple to get hired on a police force, he said.
 Fulcher said the protests that have rocked the nation from Seattle to New York since the incident are no longer about George Floyd. They have been hijacked by anarchists and criminals who are intent on simply destroying stuff.
 The statues that have been torn down or defaced in recent weeks were actually abolitionists who died fighting slavery, he said.
 In a phone interview from Washington, D.C., last week, Fulcher said the push for additional COVID-19 relief spending has paused for now. Approving stimulus money cannot replace the economy, he said, and the federal unemployment stimulus checks are keeping some workers home instead of on the job.
 Congress has already spent $2.4 trillion, with billions allocated for the nation’s industries, small businesses, unemployment and more.
 “It feels to me like the conversation has changed a little,” he said, noting that some economic numbers that came out recently on the economy were better than expected.