MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Ritchie Torres

Interview

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Richie Torres is now a congressman representing New York`s 15th congressional district and he joins me now. It`s good to have you on, Congressman. I have never encountered anyone in public life that talks the way that the head of the police unions do, like literally nowhere outside of I don`t know like wrestling maybe. Why did he say that about you? What was the context of that?

[20:55:19]

REP. RICHIE TORRES (D-NY): So, I was actually holding a press conference with then burrow president Eric Adams raising questions about the slow response times in the NYPD. And as a public official, my job is to ask questions. And so he felt the need to go on Twitter and refer to me as a first-class whore.

You know, Ed Mullins is essentially the Donald Trump of New York City politics. He`s just the single greatest man. He has a long-standing pattern of embracing conspiracy theories and trafficking in racism and sexism and homophobia. As you noted, he threatened violence against the mayor himself. He released the confidential records of the mayor`s daughter. He`s hurled homophobic and misogynistic epithets. He referred to a Black NFL player as a wild animal.

He sent to his members a video that portrays people of color as "section 8 scam artists and welfare queens." So, there`s been a repeat pattern of trafficking and the worst forms of misconduct and bigotry but he`s done it with impunity. You know, the case of this man tells a larger story about the Achilles heel of American policing, the lack of accountability, is that there is no -- if people like Ed Mullins are not held accountable, there`s never going to be an incentive for them to follow the rules.

HAYES: It blew my mind that he`s been there from 2002. And I think your point about Democratic accountability here is a really key one, because I have to say, as a reporter and I`m sure as a politician, this is more true for you than it is for me. I`ve spent a lot of time talking to cops, interviewed a ton of cops. They run the gamut. Some of them I really don`t agree with, and some I do agree with. They`re all kinds of people with all kinds of views.

The voice and tone of the police union is just so a moment -- it`s so crazily aggressive and bigoted and destructive and it just makes you feel like they are constantly saying no one can stop us. You certainly can`t stop us. We`re going to declare war on the mayor and nothing is going to happen to us. And how are people who are policed by those folks not to feel like targeted?

TORRES: Look, the culture of impunity is a deep rod at the very core of policing. And Ed Mullins, you know, was outlandish and outrageous because he knew he would get away with it. Not only was he collecting a six-figure salary from the union, he was receiving a six-figure salary from the NYPD.

So, we the taxpayers were subsidizing his misconduct in bigotry and he was found to have engaged in misconduct by the CCRB and there was never accountability. It took an FBI raid to finally force his resignation which was long overdue.

HAYES: Do you -- how do you make sense of the fact that he has been there for 19 years and the fact that again, I got to say, like the other police unions, it`s not just in New York, I mean this is just across the board. I mean go to the Twitter feeds of police unions. They come off as utterly unhinged. I mean, they really do.

And I`m not saying this is like, they speak for all cops. But go look at police union statements and they -- what does that say that that is the tone in which these professional organizations communicate when they are putatively there to protect people, to care for them, to show respect and courtesy and professionalism.

TORRES: Well, it comes off not only as unhinged but Trumpian. I mean, there`s nothing benevolent about the sergeant-benevolent association which is essentially a hate group masquerading as a police union. And I represent the South Bronx, communities of color, and we have no confidence that people like Ed Mullins from the Sergeant Benevolent Association are going to police us properly and responsibly.

And you know, to listen to them speak, you get the impression that the purpose of these police unions is not to raise the wages and benefits of their members, but to defend police misconduct, no matter how egregious.

HAYES: Where are we one year after -- more than a year after the protests, after the wild acts of misconduct by many members of the NYPD that were captured on tape after a difficult period in the city? As someone who represents my own borough, the Bronx, where do you see things be?

TORRES: We`re no closer to reforming policing or fundamentally changing the reality within the ranks of police department. We know that they are -- there are elements of right-wing extremism within the ranks of local law enforcement. You know, I worry about the doctrine of qualified immunity, which to me is essentially a license to brutalize Black and Brown lives with impunity.

And with the lack of progress around the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, we are sadly no closer to fundamentally reforming policing in America.

HAYES: Congressman Richie Torres, great to have you on. Thank you very much.

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