Schmidt disputes systemic racism in policing, calls George Floyd’s murder an isolated incident
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, the Republican nominee for governor, said Tuesday that he viewed a Minneapolis police officer’s murder of George Floyd in 2020 as an isolated incident, not a reason to look into broader issues in the U.S. criminal justice system.
When asked how he would have responded to the murder, and nationwide protests that followed, Schmidt said he wouldn’t have convened commission to study racial equity and justice, like Democratic incumbent Gov. Laura Kelly.
“I would have called for the criminal justice system in that state to deal properly with the individual conduct of that officer. I would have condemned the riots that occurred all around this country as a result of leaders in this country elevating this issue in an inflammatory manner. And I would have stood solidly behind the men and women in law enforcement,” Schmidt said.
State Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, a Wichita Democrat and the first Black woman elected to the Kansas Senate, agreed with Schmidt that not all officers are racist, but she said a continued review of systems and laws is necessary.
“There are so many other cases that weren’t televised or weren’t caught on camera. We can only say those are the ones that we all saw with our own eyeballs. I’m sure that there’s been other cases that weren’t reported. We should want to look into those issues,” Faust-Goudeau said.
“I grew up in a majority African American community, so I’ve heard those stories all my life so I guess I’m grateful for video cameras to show people what has been happening and I don’t think those are isolated situations,” she said.
Schmidt’s comments follow his campaign’s TV ad that seeks to portray Democratic incumbent Gov. Laura Kelly as an anti-police. The ad claims that Kelly cut police funding, but in actuality the state’s annual spending on public safety has increased by more than $100 million since Kelly took office.
The ad references a guest column in the Topeka Capital-Journal in which Kelly said, “systemic racism in law enforcement must end.” The ad also points to a racial justice and equity commission she convened amid civil unrest in the summer of 2020.
Schmidt, Kansas’ top law enforcement official, contended Tuesday that Kelly’s comments about systemic racism were tantamount to calling all Kansas police officers racist.
“I think it is a disservice to Kansas law enforcement for the governor to suggest that what they do day in and day out and dedicated their lives to is systemically racist,” Schmidt said.
In response, Kelly’s campaign spokeswoman Lauren Fitzgerald pointed to the governor’s increased investment in public safety.
“These false smears won’t work because Kansans know Governor Kelly has worked with both parties to deliver historic investments in law enforcement, including officers having better pay, better equipment, and better family benefits,” Fitzgerald said in an email.
Mark McCormick, chair of the Kansas African American Affairs Commission and a former member of Kelly’s racial equity commission, said Schmidt’s position was flawed because it didn’t account for officers who had failed to intervene to save Floyd’s life and it trusted officers without holding them accountable.
“We can support police without investing almost blind faith in law enforcement,” McCormick said. “We actually abdicate our responsibility when we are reluctant to hold police accountable. Ultimately, what we allow, we endorse, so we have to be careful about what we allow.”
Kelly’s commission, which made a series of recommendations regarding racial equity in law enforcement, was convened in summer 2020 in the wake of Floyd’s death.
Though Schmidt said he wouldn’t have created the commission, he did address it in October 2020. He told members that racial bias exists in law enforcement.
“It exists in human relations and so it therefore exists in the subset of human relations that includes law enforcement interactions with people,” Schmidt said at the time. He added that he believed law enforcement agencies and Kansas’ licensing agency take allegations of bias seriously.
Schmidt said Tuesday his comments were fundamentally different from Kelly’s remarks on the issue.
“I certainly don’t argue that there is systemic racism in law enforcement.”
This story was originally published October 11, 2022 at 1:00 PM.
