Maxine Waters eggs on anti-police protesters: ‘Get more confrontational’

When asked what she believes should happen if Chauvin is acquitted, Waters suggested that protesters refuse to accept the jury’s decision.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Veteran Democratic lawmaker Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) traveled from her home state to Minnesota to encourage police brutality protesters to ramp up the intensity of their demonstrations, especially if former police officer Derek Chauvin is found not guilty in the killing of George Floyd.

Waters, who has represented California’s 43rd Congressional district since 1991, visited protesters in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, who have taken to the streets after last week’s shooting of an unarmed black man.

Protesters have demonstrated for seven straight nights, railing against the killing of Daunte Wright, 20. Wright, who was unarmed, was shot once by a police officer who said she mistook her weapon for a taser.

Wright’s killing came at an especially tense time for race relations in Minnesota and the rest of the U.S., as closing arguments are set to begin in the murder trial of Chauvin, who is accused of causing the death of Floyd by kneeling on his neck.

When asked what she believes should happen if Chauvin is acquitted, Waters suggested that protesters refuse to accept the jury’s decision.

“We’re looking for a guilty verdict,” she told local reporters. “We have got to fight for justice… I’m very hopeful we’ll get a verdict that says ‘guilty, guilty, guilty,’ but if we don’t, we cannot go away.”

She said that a conviction of a lesser charge, such as manslaughter, would be unacceptable. “Oh no, not manslaughter,” she said. “Oh no, no, no.”

In the case of such a decision by the jury, Waters said protesters should use a show of force to express their displeasure.

“We’ve got to stay on the street and we’ve got to get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.”

Waters, an octogenarian, has a long history of inflammatory remarks, having encouraged people to harass Trump administration officials in public.

“Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up,” she told supporters in 2018. “And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”