CNN Touts Houston Police Chief Attacking GOP Over Gun Control

bradwilmouth | December 14, 2019
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ALISYN CAMEROTA: It's a sad day in Houston as 32-year-old police sergeant Christopher Brewster will be laid to rest. He was shot and killed responding to a domestic violence call. The city's police chief is turning his rage on Republican Senators and the gun lobby that support them. CNN's Lucy Kafanov is live in Houston with more. What did he say, Lucy?

LUCY KAFANOV: That's right, Alisyn. This morning tears and grief over the death of one of Houston's finest, Sergeant Chris Brewster was killed while investigating a domestic disturbance on Saturday. The funeral is expected to take place in just a few hours at the church behind me, but, amidst the sorrow this morning, growing anger and fury from Houston's police chief, who's been lashing out at Republican lawmakers for their perceived inaction on gun control. Take a look.

ART ACEVEDO, HOUSTON POLICE CHIEF: We'll be putting him to rest before Christmas because of the cowardice of the political people that we have in office.

KAFANOV: Fighting words from Houston police chief Art Acevedo and a blistering message to Republican lawmakers.

ACEVEDO: I don't want to see their little smug faces and how much they care about law enforcement when I'm burying a sergeant because they don't want to piss off the NRA. Make up your minds -- whose side are you on? Gun manufacturers, the gun lobby or the children that are getting gunned down in this country every single day?

KAFANOV: Sergeant Chris Brewster was shot and killed Saturday while responding to a 911 call from a woman who said her boyfriend was armed and assaulting her. Arturo Saliz was arrested and charged with capital murder, but Acevedo slammed GOP lawmakers for failing to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act which stalled in the Senate.

ACEVEDO: One of the biggest reasons that the Senate and Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and others are not getting into a room and having a conference committee with the House and getting the Violence Against Women Act is because the NRA doesn't like the fact that we want to take firearms out of the hands of boyfriends that abuse their girlfriends. And who killed our sergeant? A boyfriend abusing his girlfriend.

KAFANOV: At issue, a provision known as the "boyfriend loophole" which would "prohibit dating partners convicted of domestic violence from possessing firearms." Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn said Acevedo was mistaken because existing law should have kept a gun out of Arturo Saliz's hands.

SENATOR JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): I regret he took the occasion -- the sad occasion of the officer's murder to try to make a political statement that was factually wrong.

KAFANOV: A sentiment echoed by Senator Ted Cruz who accused the police chief of "trying to advance his own political ambitions."

ACEVENIDO: To the people that say this is political, this is not political. Death is not political. You see, death is final, and so the question is simple: Do you, Senator Cruz, support closing the boyfriend loophole that's in the law -- yes or no? Because if you're not going to look at the response from the elected officials. In the Senate, not one of them addressed the loophole. You know why? Because they're on the wrong side of history -- that's why..

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