http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/rand-paul-meets-with-black-leaders-in-ferguson-111772.html
FERGUSON, Mo. — With racial tensions here flaring anew, Republican Sen. Rand Paul on Friday urged the African-American community to use its “power” at the ballot box to achieve change and not turn to rioting.
On the heels of another police shooting of a young African-American man, the Kentucky senator came here for a 45-minute “listening session” with a group of 20 local black leaders, including pastors, local business owners and representatives of the NAACP, the Urban League and the Anti-Defamation League.
Paul, who has made GOP outreach to minorities a cornerstone of his message for a likely 2016 presidential campaign, is the first White House hopeful of either party to visit this town of 21,000, which dominated headlines over the summer after a white local police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an 18-year-old, unarmed African-American.
One person at the session asked Paul whether diversity on police forces should be mandated by the federal government, he said. Paul, noting that two-thirds of the city’s population is black, told them it’s best to push for such change through elections.
“My opinion is they have a great deal of power and if they wanted an African-American police chief they’d get it in one election if they just go vote for the mayor and register people,” he said afterward. “They were not too antagonistic to that. Some of them still want some kind of federal intervention here, but they have a great deal of power and could do anything they want if they register people to vote.”
More than 3,200 residents of Ferguson, or one-seventh of the residents, have registered to vote since Brown was killed in August. Liberal groups set up booths on the street where Brown was killed to get people on the rolls.
The Missouri Republican Party’s executive director, Matt Wills, told the conservative blog Breitbart in August that the voter registration drive was “not only disgusting but completely inappropriate.” “If that’s not fanning the political flames, I don’t know what is,” he said.
Paul stressed that he strongly supports getting more people on the rolls across the board – even if they’re Democrats – including through restoring the voting rights of non-violent convicted felons.
“I haven’t seen the comments, but my comment is I want more people to vote, not less,” he said. “If we want to win elections, we’ve got to try to compete for African-American votes.”
“Violence gets nowhere and it actually sends us backwards,” he added. “If that energy, and some anger, if that were channeled into registering voters and getting people out to vote, then you can have constructive changes.”
The exchange is a reflection of the unique place that Paul finds himself in, balancing his libertarian world view that calls for minimal federal intervention with trying to broaden the GOP’s appeal to African-Americans — all while trying to become the standard bearer of a party that has won a series of elections since the 1960s on “law and order” messages.
Paul said he understands the desire by local residents to have the Justice Department issue consent degrees and exert control. “I think there’s a role for the federal government to step in when laws are discriminatory or when there’s police action that is, frankly, discriminatory,” he said.
The session, which took place in a storefront on the main drag of town amid pouring rain, came after a second night of street protests in neighboring St. Louis after a white off-duty cop, in uniform and moonlighting as a security guard, killed another 18-year-old African-American. Authorities say that the teen, Vonderrit Deondre Myers, fired three pistol shots at the officer, who fired back 17 times.
FERGUSON, Mo. — With racial tensions here flaring anew, Republican Sen. Rand Paul on Friday urged the African-American community to use its “power” at the ballot box to achieve change and not turn to rioting.
On the heels of another police shooting of a young African-American man, the Kentucky senator came here for a 45-minute “listening session” with a group of 20 local black leaders, including pastors, local business owners and representatives of the NAACP, the Urban League and the Anti-Defamation League.
Paul, who has made GOP outreach to minorities a cornerstone of his message for a likely 2016 presidential campaign, is the first White House hopeful of either party to visit this town of 21,000, which dominated headlines over the summer after a white local police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an 18-year-old, unarmed African-American.
One person at the session asked Paul whether diversity on police forces should be mandated by the federal government, he said. Paul, noting that two-thirds of the city’s population is black, told them it’s best to push for such change through elections.
“My opinion is they have a great deal of power and if they wanted an African-American police chief they’d get it in one election if they just go vote for the mayor and register people,” he said afterward. “They were not too antagonistic to that. Some of them still want some kind of federal intervention here, but they have a great deal of power and could do anything they want if they register people to vote.”
More than 3,200 residents of Ferguson, or one-seventh of the residents, have registered to vote since Brown was killed in August. Liberal groups set up booths on the street where Brown was killed to get people on the rolls.
The Missouri Republican Party’s executive director, Matt Wills, told the conservative blog Breitbart in August that the voter registration drive was “not only disgusting but completely inappropriate.” “If that’s not fanning the political flames, I don’t know what is,” he said.
Paul stressed that he strongly supports getting more people on the rolls across the board – even if they’re Democrats – including through restoring the voting rights of non-violent convicted felons.
“I haven’t seen the comments, but my comment is I want more people to vote, not less,” he said. “If we want to win elections, we’ve got to try to compete for African-American votes.”
“Violence gets nowhere and it actually sends us backwards,” he added. “If that energy, and some anger, if that were channeled into registering voters and getting people out to vote, then you can have constructive changes.”
The exchange is a reflection of the unique place that Paul finds himself in, balancing his libertarian world view that calls for minimal federal intervention with trying to broaden the GOP’s appeal to African-Americans — all while trying to become the standard bearer of a party that has won a series of elections since the 1960s on “law and order” messages.
Paul said he understands the desire by local residents to have the Justice Department issue consent degrees and exert control. “I think there’s a role for the federal government to step in when laws are discriminatory or when there’s police action that is, frankly, discriminatory,” he said.
The session, which took place in a storefront on the main drag of town amid pouring rain, came after a second night of street protests in neighboring St. Louis after a white off-duty cop, in uniform and moonlighting as a security guard, killed another 18-year-old African-American. Authorities say that the teen, Vonderrit Deondre Myers, fired three pistol shots at the officer, who fired back 17 times.
