Rashida Tlaib’s ‘Racist’ Remarks Incense Detroit Police Chief: ‘It’s a Double Standard’

DETROIT, MI - JULY 22: U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) speaks at the opening plenary sessio
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Hannah Knudsen

Detroit Police Chief James Craig criticized Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-MI) bizarre remarks about hiring only black analysts to review facial recognition software, noting the “double standard” and calling her assertion “racist.”

The far-left “Squad” member made the remarks during a tour of the Real Time Crime Center, “where monitors display live footage from video cameras on traffic lights and in and around businesses,” the Detroit News reported.

Tlaib told Craig that “analysts need to be African Americans, not people that are not” because “non-African Americans think African Americans all look the same.”

“I trust people who are trained, regardless of race; regardless of gender,” Craig, who is black, responded. “It’s about the training.”

“I know,” Tlaib said. “But it does make a huge difference with the analysts.”

She doubled down later, telling a reporter, “No, I think there has actually been studies out that it’s hard for — African Americans would identify African Americans, or Latinos, same thing.”

Craig was incensed by Tlaib’s suggestion, telling Fox 2 that her remarks could be perceived as racist.

“Are her comments racist?” Fox 2 asked.

“I think they are racist. I don’t know [if] we can call it what we want,” Craig responded:

“It’s a double standard,” Craig said. “Certainly as the police chief of this city, if I had made a similar comment, people would be outraged, and they would be calling for my resignation.”

“My police officers are held to the same standard. If they make a racially insensitive comment – and we’ve seen it happen, where I’ve investigated and terminated, so this is serious,” he continued, adding that the men and women who work in the Real Time Crime Center are “troubled” by Tlaib’s assertion.

“And the men and women who work in that Real Time Crime Center, who are trained, professionals, very diverse unit, I met with them this afternoon– troubled,” he said:

Tlaib has argued that “facial recognition technology, or call it ‘software,’ is racist itself.”

“I’m not even going to try and understand why the comments were made,” Craig said in reference to Tlaib. “Let’s just simply say it was improper, it wasn’t right and we should be talking about other things.”

The Detroit Police Department invited Tlaib to tour the facility in August after the freshman lawmaker blasted facial recognition technology as “bulls**t.”

“@RashidaTlaib Before you criticize the software, come to our Real Time Crime Center to see how we @detroitpolice responsibly use it in efforts to identify criminals involved in violent crimes. Let’s set a date,” the department wrote:

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