Oh, look. The two main police groups, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Fraternal Order of Police, released a joint statement yesterday saying they were “disappointed that Senate negotiators could not reach agreement on police reform legislation” and remain “committed to enacting carefully balanced and thoughtful legislation” on the topic. And then they very politely slammed Sen. Tim Scott, The Future of The Republican Party™, in the teeth. Via the Washington Post:

“Despite some media reports, at no point did any legislative draft propose ‘defunding the police,’” the groups said in their statement. “In fact, the legislation specifically provided additional funding to assist law enforcement agencies in training, agency accreditation, and data collection initiatives. It is our joint belief that the provisions under discussion would have strengthened the law enforcement profession and helped improve the state of community police engagement without compromising management and officers’ rights, authorities, and legal protections.”

Wait, what? You mean Sen. Tim lied? Oh yes, he did! Hate to say I told you so, but...

Democrats last week ended months of negotiations that began after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and subsequent nationwide protests. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), the party’s lead negotiators, said they had compromised repeatedly but Republicans sought more concessions.

The Democrats’ final offer omitted any changes to the legal doctrine of qualified immunity, or Section 242 of the Civil Rights Act, that would have caused officers to face expanded civil or criminal accountability — taking a major sticking point for Republicans off the table completely.

So the Democrats gave up on the key piece of their agenda, qualified immunity, and Republicans still wanted more. Wahh! Wahh!

Scott's response to the statement was to point to ... a laughable Wall St. Journal editorial, which basically chewed up Scott's version of events and regurgitated it whole. Even before the Journal was purchased by the execrable Rupert Murdoch, everyone in journalism circles knew their editorials were straight partisan bullsh*t that often contradicted the fact-based reporting of their own journalists! (It's gotten even worse under Murdoch.)

But let's at least give credit to the Washington Post, for setting the record straight and making it clear that no matter how far we go to compromise with Republicans, they will lie and blame us anyway -- probably because in their slash-and-burn party, they don't actually know how to negotiate, or govern, or do good for Americans.