Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers equated U.S. police officers with ISIS (the Islamic State) during a hearing on gun legislation.
Chambers, an Independent, represented an Omaha district for 35 years in the state legislature before he was term-limited out in 2009 by a law passed in 2000. He sat out the required four years, and then was reelected in a landslide. The civil rights activist is a vocal critic of the police and a death penalty foe.
During the Friday hearing, Chambers, 77, made the following comparison , according to Nebraska Watchdog .
“My ISIS is the police… The police are licensed to kill us — children, old people… Nobody from ISIS ever terrorized us as a people as the police do us daily.”
“Nebraska’s longest serving senator, Chambers represents north Omaha, a high-crime area where racial tension simmers and sometimes erupts after encounters with police,” Fox News reported .
In an apparent reference to those elected officials with whom he disagreed, Chambers added that “If I was going to carry a weapon, it wouldn’t be against you, it wouldn’t be against these people who come here that I might have a dispute with. Mine would be for the police. And if I carried a gun, I’d want to shoot him first and then ask questions later, like they say the cop ought to do.”
Yesterday, Chambers, a gun control supporter, sought to clarify his comments by claiming that his constituents “feel terrorized” by trigger-happy police, that he himself does not carry a firearm, and nor does he advocate violence.
“I don’t carry a weapon. I’ve never carried a weapon. But if I were in the situation that some people are in … if you’re going to follow the rule available to cops, just shoot somebody and come up with an alibi… I’m not advocating that anybody, especially anybody in my community, go out and shoot people.”
Along similar lines, Sen. Chambers told Omaha.com that “his comments were in the context of criticizing the lack of prosecution of Omaha Police Officer Alvin Lugod in connection with the Feb. 23 fatal shooting of a robbery suspect, Danny Elrod. Lugod resigned Tuesday, as Chambers said he should have.”
Chambers made headlines in 2009 by filing a lawsuit against God seeking a permanent injunction against the deity for the “widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions.” Apparently, the legal action was a symbolic way of insisting that the courthouse doors remain open to everyone seeking redress, even for cases considered frivolous. The case was tossed out because a sheriff was unable to serve the legal papers at God’s last known address, which was unknown. After an appeal to a higher court, the lawsuit was again dismissed after the court ruled that the judiciary cannot “decide abstract questions or hypothetical or fictitious issues.”
Last month, during a filibuster in the legislature, Sen. Chambers reportedly claimed that all white people are racist, and that his blood was polluted by whites.
[Image via YouTube]