Holly MatkinWashington, DC – U.S. Representative Maxine Waters (D-California) said during a recent television interview that she believes police think their job “is to keep black people in their place.”
Waters, 82, has been in public office for the past 45 years, and is the longest-serving black woman in the U.S. House of Representatives, Spectrum News reported.
She currently chairs the House Financial Services Committee, and is the female and first African American to do so.
During a recent interview with “In Focus SoCal,” host Tanya McRae asked Waters why she thinks America has “such difficulty learning from history…when it comes to violence and injustice done to black people.”
“It stems from slavery – when whites were absolutely in charge,” Waters quickly responded. “I mean, they’ve always been in charge, and I think that this thinking about the need to control, the need to make sure that people stay in their place…has been basically what has happened in America for all of these years.”
Waters alleged this mentality “continues in various ways.”
“The police I think really believe – and in some ways are led to believe – that their greatest challenge and their greatest chore is to keep uh, you know, black people in their place,” she told McRae.
Waters said police reform is at the top of her agenda this year.
“I’ve known for years that we needed change,” she lamented. “We’ve needed change for a long time, and a lot of unarmed black people – black men in particular – have lost their lives simply because the police officers who were, you know, in control, knew that nothing would happen to them.”
“When they had an opportunity to show that they’re tough, that they’re in control, [then] black lives were lost,” Waters alleged.
In July of 2020, Waters stopped her vehicle and jumped out to intervene in a police traffic stop in Los Angeles, the New York Post reported.
Video posted to social media showed that passersby recognized the notoriously anti-police legislator and began filming her antics as they called out to her.
“They stopped a brother so I stopped to see what they were doing,” Waters explained to them in the video, pointing to a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy standing next to a patrol car.
“They say I’m in the wrong place and they’re going to give me a ticket,” she told the person filming and gestured to where her own car was stopped in traffic a few feet ahead of the stopped police vehicle.
“But that’s okay,” Waters continued. “As long as I watch them…”
“Gotta do what you gotta do,” a woman on the other side of the video agreed.
Then the congresswoman took her leave and headed back over to the deputy, the video showed.
“Bye Maxine, good luck!” a man off camera hollered as the video ended.
Waters has also demanded that those responsible for the U.S. Capitol riot be held accountable, but mentioned nothing during her interview with McRae about the antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters who destroyed and looted multiple cities across the nation last year.
“We have to let people know you cannot get away with it,” she told McRae. “Whether you’re the Proud Boys, or the Oath Keepers, or QAnon, white supremacists, KKK – if you are attacking people, if you are destroying, if you are dangerous, if you’re a terrorist, you’re gonna pay the price for it.”
She said people also have to make it known that “it’s not acceptable” to be involved in such groups.
“It’s not about one group, it’s about all groups,” Waters added.
Waters touted her years of political “wisdom” and praised the passage of the latest $1.9 trillion “COVID relief” plan she had been pushing for.
The committee she chairs also oversees Wall Street, all of the nation’s banks, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“I have the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and on and on and on,” Waters added. “So, I have direct oversight of all the financial service agencies of government.”
She said she has addressed the needs of concerns of many groups of people who demanded more from the government when they felt they needed aid.
“I hope I’ll be remembered as someone who fought, who fought for young people, who fought for people of color, who worked hard to ensure justice and equality for everybody,” Waters said during the interview.
