Developing: Black Leader Suing Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg Over Alleged Racist Policing In South Bend
Pete Buttigieg rivals and critics attack his record on race relations and question whether the former mayor of a mid-sized, Midwestern town is up to the task of being the next commander in chief.
After all, it seems that his racist past comes back to haunt him.
Buttigieg has struggled mightily to attract support from voters of color, which could be a major issue for him once the calendar turns to more diverse states.
Henry Davis Jr., a black member of the South Bend City Council, had a viral Twitter moment this weekend when he attacked Buttigieg for turning a blind eye to “systemic racism” in the police department.
Buttigieg has been dogged by his decision to demote South Bend’s first African American police chief, who secretly recorded white police officers he suspected were making racist remarks.
“Pete Buttigieg looked like a deer in headlights last night when talking about systemic racism in the South Bend Police,” Davis tweeted. “He tolerated it, he perpetuated it, and last night he lied to millions of Americans about it.”
As a Councilman in #SouthBend, I know why @PeteButtigieg looked like a deer in headlights last night when talking about systemic racism in the South Bend Police. He tolerated it, he perpetuated it, and last night he lied to millions of Americans about it.
— Henry Davis, Jr. (@iamhenrydavisjr) February 9, 2020
Buttigieg has characterized Davis as a political rival he defeated in the governor’s race and he has expressed regret about how he handled the demotion. Davis has a long history of criticizing Buttigieg. In 2017, he implied that Buttigieg came out as gay to benefit his political career.
But there are other racial controversies as well.
Buttigieg faced protests back home last year after a white police officer shot and killed a black man. The officer says the victim approached him with a knife, but the policeman did not have his camera on at the time of the shooting.
Also, Indiana’s police officer who was involved in the controversial 2012 death of a man in police custody was promoted in October at the recommendation of Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski, a close ally of Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Activists called on the mayor, now a leading Democratic presidential candidate, to fire Ruszkowski following a police shooting over the summer. The city’s recent promotion of officer David Johnson, Buttigieg’s South Bend critics says, is yet another example of the mayor’s failure to adequately address troubling race relations in the city he governs.
“This is why people in the black community have issues with police, because of these kinds of things,” Black Lives Matter activist Jorden Giger said. Giger is also a co-leader of Our Revolution South Bend and Michiana, which supports Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for president.
It seems there are plenty of cases about Pete and his racist past.
And investigative journalist Paul Sperry tweeted that Former major Pete Buttigieg will now face a lawsuit over alleged racist policing in South Bend.
DEVELOPING: Black leader suing former Mayor Pete Buttigieg over alleged racist policing in South Bend
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) February 13, 2020
Probably Henry Davis Jr is the man behind this lawsuit but we will confirm later.
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Natalie D. is an American conservative writer who writes for Supreme Insider and Conservative US, ! Natalie has described herself as a polemicist who likes to “stir up the pot,” and does not “pretend to be impartial or balanced, as broadcasters do,” drawing criticism from the left, and sometimes from the right. As a passionate journalist, she works relentlessly to uncover the corruption happening in Washington. She is a “constitutional conservative”.
