Far-left Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) rushed to defend hardened criminals that were rioting in a St. Louis prison after attacking a corrections officer on Saturday, a move that drew instant criticism given her response to the riot that broke out at the U.S. Capitol Building last month.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the riot inside the City Justice Center broke out during the early morning hours on Saturday when an inmate who was mad at one of the guards decided to attack the guard, at which point other inmates joined in. Eventually, well over 100 inmates broke free from their jail cells and started a riot, breaking windows and setting fires. Authorities did eventually regain control of the facility.
“These were just very angry, defiant, very violent people that we house at the Justice Center,” the city’s director of public safety, Jimmie Edwards, told reporters. “No one at the Justice Center is housed for a misdemeanor, a municipal offense or a low-level felony. Everybody housed at the Justice Center is housed there because of very serious offenses like assault on police officers and homicide and things of that sort.”
Bush rushed to defend the criminals over the weekend, quoting Martin Luther King Jr.: “A riot is the language of the unheard.”
“I want to talk to my constituents in the window. Their lives and their rights must be protected,” Bush tweeted. “My team and I are working to ensure that the urgent needs of people who are incarcerated are not ignored.”
“A riot is the language of the unheard.” – Dr. MLK Jr.
I want to talk to my constituents in the window. Their lives and their rights must be protected.
My team and I are working to ensure that the urgent needs of people who are incarcerated are not ignored. https://t.co/wMq8ecyLQ2
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) February 7, 2021
Bush also released a separate statement on the riot where she specifically stated that she wanted to make sure that the “demands” being made by the violent criminals were “not ignored” [emphasis added]:
What we saw today—and have been seeing at the St. Louis City Justice Center (CJC)—must be addressed immediately. Long before today, our jails have been notorious for their unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
We have an incarceration crisis. To date, 1 in 5 incarcerated people nationally has tested positive for COVID-19, including many across the City of St. Louis. I am concerned that the conditions for people who are incarcerated pose serious risks to their health, safety, and wellbeing as well as that of those who work there.
I am calling for complete transparency and accountability from the city of St. Louis. Officials must publicly disclose the city’s COVID-19 testing protocols, case rate and hospitalization data, vaccination plans, use of solitary confinement, and transfer procedures for its local jails. Additionally, following two previous uprisings at CJC, our community needs information about any actions taken to address concerns raised by people in detention, some of whom are simply being held because they cannot afford bail.
I have been in contact with local government officials and community leaders since I became aware of the incident early this morning. My team and I are taking steps to reach out to the impacted families and communities to figure out the path forward to justice. I want to ensure that the demands made by those being held at CJC are not ignored, and I plan to investigate this further. There needs to be a plan to improve conditions and decarcerate.
My thoughts are with all those who have been harmed or injured during today’s events. To everyone involved, especially those in the system and their families, know that you have a Congresswoman who loves everyone in our community and who wants to hear directly from you. If you have information about the conditions that people who are incarcerated are living under in our community—or for any other needs my office can help you with during this time—please call or leave a message with my office at 314-955-9980 to share your story.
Bush has also expressed support for some of the most violent and heinous criminals in the criminal justice system, calling on people to “say [the] names” of “13 people murdered by Trump’s death row killing spree.”
The list of names included a white supremacist murderer; a violent rapist and murderer; a child murderer and drug trafficker; a man who murdered a grandmother and a young child; a child murderer, rapist, and torturer; a child molester, rapist, and murderer; two men who murdered youth ministers; a drug trafficker who kidnapped and raped an honor roll student and later buried her alive; a man who abused, tortured, and murdered his two-year-old daughter; a man who murdered seven people; a man who kidnapped and murdered three women; and a woman who murdered a pregnant woman, cut open the woman’s body and kidnapped the baby.
A deleted tweet from @CoriBush:https://t.co/I0Y5yiN1nl pic.twitter.com/T8hKmhoGl6
— Derek Willis (@derekwillis) January 19, 2021
Bush was slammed online by people who noted Bush’s recent remarks about those who were involved in a riot that broke out in the nation’s capital on January 6, 2021.
I don’t want to unite with those responsible for the insurrection at our nation’s Capitol. I want us to unite in holding them accountable.
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) January 12, 2021
I’m in the Capitol. I’m safe, and my team and I are sheltering in place.
The President of the United States has incited a riot that has now stormed the Capitol. There are rioters roaming the halls of the Capitol. I saw them with my own eyes.
Our country deserves better.
— Congresswoman Cori Bush (@RepCori) January 6, 2021
Riots are back in fash again. https://t.co/aXqzpddWn8
— James Lindsay, won't fit in your box (@ConceptualJames) February 7, 2021
The problem with taking quotes like this in absolute is that; when people we don't like use it tomorrow it will be hard to oppose them.
Who decides what people should be concerned and riot about?
Who decides what people feel bothered by? https://t.co/gZxdlEdB6s
— Baṣòrun Ajanleikoko (@Ajanleikoko) February 7, 2021
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) February 7, 2021
“Riots are socially destructive and self-defeating… So I will continue to condemn riots, and continue to say to my brothers and sisters that this is not the way. And continue to affirm that there is another way.”
Dr. MLK Jr.
(in the same speech Cori Bush is quoting)— Boomieleaks (@Boomieleaks) February 7, 2021
Riots are great again unless a bunch of whites from the trailer park are doing it, in which case it’s domestic terrorism. https://t.co/rpSh1KbNYc
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 7, 2021