Texas’ Dan Patrick says racism is ‘an issue of love’ that must be met by ‘loving God’
Discussing protests spurred by the death of George Floyd, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Fox News Wednesday night that racism is “really an issue of love” that must be met with “loving God.”
“We have racism in this country,” Patrick told Fox News host Shannon Bream. “But it’s really an issue of love. It’s loving God. You cannot love your fellow man if you don’t love God. And we have a country where we’ve been working really hard — particularly on the left — to kick God out.”
Demonstrators across the state have marched daily against police brutality after a viral video depicted Floyd, a Black man, dying after a white police officer in Minneapolis pressed a knee into his neck while his hands were handcuffed behind his back.
Patrick said a culture change is needed to address racism, which must start with addressing “the character of mankind.”
“And for billions of us on the planet, we believe you can’t do that unless you accept Jesus Christ, unless you accept God,” Patrick said. “And God has been left out of this equation through all of this. We need tremendous healing. We cannot heal through commissions and blue ribbon panels and more laws. We can only heal ourselves if we really reach out and love one another.”
Texas’ top state leaders and lawmakers have spoken out about Floyd’s death, with Gov. Greg Abbott calling it “a horrific act of police brutality” and pointing to the need to renew discussions around criminal justice reform.
“The crime against George Floyd, in my view, was a crime against all Black America and against humanity,” Patrick said.
Patrick noted demonstrations across Texas have been mostly peaceful and referenced the tens of thousands of people who had marched in Houston Wednesday, the city where Floyd grew up.
On Sunday, police blocked a peaceful protest in Fort Worth, and used tear gas, smoke and flash bombs to disperse protesters from the 7th Street bridge. Since then, demonstrations have been largely peaceful, with Fort Worth Police Chief Ed Kraus and officers kneeling and praying with demonstrators out after Fort Worth’s 8 p.m. curfew.
Officer Derek Chauvin was arrested and his charges were upgraded to second-degree murder Wednesday. Three other officers involved in Floyd’s arrest also were charged Wednesday with aiding and abetting his murder. All four officers have been fired.
Patrick said “if they’re bad officers, they need to be drummed out before we ever get to this point,” and stressed that after the officers involved have been tried in the courts, “we have a lot of healing to do.”
In the past, Patrick has been critical of the Black Lives Matter movement, and in 2016 called for an investigation into the group and blamed protests related to the movement for the Dallas shooting that left five police officers dead.
Patrick was also asked about former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis’ statement to The Atlantic Wednesday in which Mattis said: “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort.”
Patrick said “the timing was terrible.”
“I think there are a lot of people speaking up now that are creating real distraction and undermining what we’re all trying to do in this country,” Patrick said.
This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 10:01 AM.
