- First, Republicans and the
Democratic governor were at
odds over the path forward when
dealing with the coronavirus.
Now another contentious issue
when it comes to police reform.
Republican Assembly Majority
Leader Jim Steineke joins us
from Kaukauna this week with
his insights. And thanks very
much for being here.
- Yeah, thanks for having me.
- So we haven't spoken in
a couple of weeks.
What is your reaction to the
deadly force used in
the death of George Floyd?
- Absolutely horrific. I can't
imagine anybody that could
watch that video.
Eight-- over eight minutes
of the officer kneeling on
George
Floyd's neck. Him pleading
for help and eventually
passing away and not
feel the outrage
that I think everybody should
feel. It was disgusting.
Something
that there is no place for in
law enforcement and
we've got to work to make sure
that these cases don't reoccur.
- A Democratic bill at the
state Capitol would make the
primary duty of all
law enforcement to preserve
the life of all individuals and
that deadly force is to
be used only as a last
resort.
How willing is the Republican
majority to get behind
this legislation?
- Oh, yeah.
Yeah. I guess when it comes to
that particular piece of
legislation, I'm I'm not
exactly sure what the goal is
because that is already in
place in police departments all
over the state.
Police departments all over the
state already have
have a goal of de-escalation,
minimizing the use of force.
I mean, when we talk about the
use of force in law
enforcement, I think it's
somewhere around less than one
percent of the cases where
there's any kind of use of
force in an arrest.
So we're talking about a
small minority of the cases.
But obviously, when you you
have situations like George
Floyd and others
who would have fell victim to
police brutality, you
know, heightens the issue
and highlights it more.
But there's there's already
these policies on the books
throughout throughout the
state.
- Policies on the books would
be different than
state statutes, something
passed by
legislators.
What would you like to see
in your initial comments about
your horror, about what
happened to George Floyd?
You said that really something
needs to be done.
What would that be?
- Yeah, I mean, it's hard as
a legislator to
admit that we don't
have all the answers.
It's hard to put forward
pieces of legislation that will
end racism and change the
hearts and minds of people that
do harbor
those racist tendencies.
I think we have to be careful
going forward that whatever we
do is done in a vein that
makes sure that we protect
the health and safety of our
citizens. We make sure
that people of color
living in our communities don't
fear the police. That is, that
is something that as a as
a white male, I just don't
understand.
So I want to understand
that better.
And the conversations
have to be held with
people of color throughout the
state, leaders in our
communities, law
enforcement, the faith
community. We have to have a
broader conversation about race
and what we can do as a society
as a whole, not just through
legislation, but through
societal change and
reforms that will help move
this process along
, along further.
- I know that Governor Evers
would like to see legislation
hit his desk around
this issue of police
reform.
Are you saying that that's
not going to happen and
that you're-- are
you willing to speak with him
about this?
- Well, yeah, certainly we're
willing to speak with him.
I mean, that's
that's something that I would
I think everybody is open
to conversations about
legislation going forward.
I think, like I said, we're
not, we're not saying
legislation doesn't need to
happen.
But I think the broader
conversation needs to happen.
And people have to remember in
Wisconsin, we've already done
some reforms to
how officer-involved shootings
are investigated and other
things that kind
of have changed the
conversation over the course of
the years and moved us forward.
But continuing those
conversations is critical
and especially heading into the
next legislature, next
legislative session.
- Have you had any of those
conversations yet with the
Evers administration?
- No. The Evers administration
hasn't reached out to
us, obviously, given the news
of this week with
his secretly tape
recording our conversations,
that has
put a wedge in between the two
sides even further than was
already there and has damaged
some of the trust
that we were trying
to build going forward so we
can have some conversations
about these monumental
issues, but hopefully
the Evers administration will
recognize how serious a mistake
that was to
secretly record these
conversations and do something
about it.
- I do know on that that the
governor said that he himself
was not aware of that,
but understood.
And thanks very much.
Representative Steineke for
joining us.
- Absolutely. And thank you and it's
important if he didn't
understand that was going on, I
take him at his word.
But then somebody should have
to-- whoever authorized
this in his office
should pay the consequences for
it.
All right. Representative Steineke,
thank you.
- Thank you.