On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) said that he agrees with the International Criminal Court investigating the American criminal justice system and “if we have nothing to hide, we shouldn’t worry about what might be found by the international community.”
Host Joy Reid asked, “The International Criminal Court is looking at the American criminal justice system and its treatment particularly of African Americans and saying that it might be crimes against humanity, that this actually might be something that the international community ought to take a bigger look at in terms of whether there is systemic brutality, even torture, and in short, severe deprivation of physical liberty, persecution, and inhuman acts generally by American law enforcement. Do you agree with that kind of an inquiry?”
Ellison responded, “Yes. I think that if we have nothing to hide, we shouldn’t worry about what might be found by the international community. I think it would be wise for the United States criminal justice system to open itself up. But let me just point out, the international community has helped in the area of racial justice in America before. It’s largely believed that the Cold War and Cold War competition is what helped drive some of the Civil Rights movement as the United States was trying to tell the rest of the world and the emerging decolonized world, hey, join us, we’re on the side of democracy. Those same countries…could say, wait a minute, I can’t buy a cup of coffee in your country. … So, I mean, the international community is relevant in this conversation, and I think that it could only make us better. It can only make us better, and I think a little bit of humility toward the rest of the world, understanding the eyes of the world are upon us is important.”
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