Fmr footballer running for VA Senate compared cops to ‘slave patrols’ in 2020

A penalty flag is being thrown on the Virginia state Senate campaign of former Green Bay Packers football player Aaron Rouse after a 2020 video resurfaced of the Democrat bashing America and the police at a “unity rally” in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

“America may have freed the slave, but not the Black American,” Rouse said at the event. “I’m not here to explain to you the anger, the frustration, and the tired of being sick and tired of being Black in America.”

“I’m not here to teach you how the institution of slavery formed the origins of American policing….The similarities between the slave patrols and modern American policing are too salient to dismiss or ignore,” he stated.


(Video: Facebook)

The inflammatory comments came after Rouse promised to be “straightforward” and “speak the truth.”

He then called out the “racist Jim Crow laws that still exist today” and voiced his support for reparations for black Americans and black-owned businesses in the form of municipal jobs and city contracts.

Later in his speech, Rouse went so far as to issue a thinly-veiled threat at a time when cities across the country were on fire from “mostly peaceful” protests. In Virginia, Fox News reported, two capitol police officers were taken to the hospital after being injured by demonstrators in the name of George Floyd.

“If we continue to allow systemic and systematic barriers to persist…” Rouse said, “neither persons nor property will be safe.”

 

A third-round Green Bay Packers’ choice in the 2007 NFL draft, Rouse left the league in 2007.

After Republican state Senator Jen Kiggans successfully secured a U.S. congressional seat in the midterm elections, Rouse, who, since 2018 has served as a Virginia Beach city council member, announced his run for the 7th District seat she vacated.

The special election is to be held on January 10 and has gained national attention as the country’s current “abortion battleground” race.

“I’m very confident,” Rouse said when he announced his candidacy. “I think we have a proven track record to ensure and take care of all Virginians in the Commonwealth that politics does not get in the way of making sure that there’s human decency and rights, that everybody in the state of Virginia has a place to call home.”


(Video: YouTube)

Abortion rights are central to Rouse’s campaign.

“Radical Republicans are ready to ban abortion in Virginia. But, if we win this seat, we won’t let them,” he promised on Twitter in late December. “Send me to Richmond and I’ll be the last line of defense for women’s reproductive rights in Virginia.”

In stark contrast to Rouse’s anti-American sentiments, his Republican opponent, Retired Lieutenant Commander Kevin H. Adams, is a 26-year veteran of the U.S. Navy who vows he will “be an absolute fighter for our country’s men and women in uniform and our honored veterans.”

He supports parents’ rights to be involved in their children’s education.

“For too long, we’ve allowed bureaucrats to have the power in our school systems, but Virginia’s parents have said ‘enough!'” Adams states on his website. “I am living proof that anyone can find the American Dream if they’re willing to work for it. There can be no question: parents should have a say in their children’s education, and kids learn better when parents are invested in that process.”

And he proudly supports the men and women in blue.

“Just like my brothers and sisters in the armed forces, the men and women in blue put their lives on the line for their neighbors each and every day,” he writes. “They deserve our full respect and support.”

And if the differences between Rouse and Adams have not yet been made clear, Adams and his wife volunteer at pregnancy resource centers.

“My wife and I have been blessed to volunteer at pregnancy resource centers, where we’ve been able to counsel young women – and young men – on how they can choose life,” Adams writes. “And I think we have an obligation as a society to do more to help young women facing that decision know there are options besides abortion.”

“And we need to make sure we support life beyond birth,” he continued, “and that means supporting moms and dads who choose life.”

 

Melissa Fine

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