Washington, DC - Nusrat Jahan Choudhury, who has been nominated to serve as a United States district judge in the Eastern District of New York, appeared and testified this week before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
At the hearing, she was asked if she believed that “cops kill unarmed Black men in America every single day”—a statement she made while participating as a panelist at Princeton University. She did not deny making this blatantly false claim and stated that she made the statement in her “role as an advocate” to make a “rhetorical point.” I was shocked that she unapologetically embraced this comment.
Our nation has a problem with hateful rhetoric now and it is getting worse. We see hateful speech directed at Jews in New Jersey and New York and it has translated into increasing violence targeting the Jewish community. Nationwide, hate speech denigrating Asian-Americans has led to an increase in violence against these communities. Brutal bias and hateful rhetoric aimed at law enforcement officers have led to the same—more officers were shot in the line of duty last year than any time since this data was first collected.
In all of these cases—in ALL of them—hate-fueled rhetoric, in many cases protected speech as Ms. Choudhury’s remark certainly was in the academic confines of Princeton University, is leading to violence. These words, left unchallenged, are too often transformed by violent individuals into action—actions that leave a rabbi beaten in New York City, Asian-American women shot in Atlanta, and cops ambushed all around our country.
Her statement was false. She knew it then and knows it now. She said it with malice aforethought and in so doing buttressed the increased public bias against law enforcement officers and contributed to the barrage of false and hateful rhetoric that inspires others to violence. She has helped to erode the bonds of trust between law enforcement and the communities they protect by proudly misrepresenting the facts and has, in our view, disqualified herself from serving on the Federal bench.
On behalf of the members of the Fraternal Order of Police, I call on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary to reject her nomination.