The Revs. Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III were back for their regular Monday segment on BPR, "All Revved Up." They talked about the wait Loretta Lynch has endured to see whether she'll be confirmed as US Attorney General; a second officer in North Charleston, South Carolina who is now under scrutiny in the shooting death of Walter Scott; and they offered a grade of Pope Francis in light of a big announcement last week.
Responses have been edited where noted [...], and questions are paraphrased.
President Obama's nominee to replace AG Eric Holder, Loretta Lynch, has been held up for over five months. What do you make of this?
Price: This is horrible because the holdup has absolutely nothing to do with her. [...] This is absolutely politics not as usual. It used to be partisan politics, [...] but this is personal politics.
Monroe: I think it's about Barack Obama. [...] Last month you had about twenty African American women who went to Capitol Hill to protest the slow-walking and stalling of her nomination. [...] I was looking for a sisterhood of many women in support of Loretta Lynch. [...] This is a Rosa Parks [moment].
Price: To have somebody who's the existing US Attorney [for the Eastern District of New York] to be held hostage by the Senate, that's absurd.
Monroe: I thought they would move expeditiously on Loretta Lynch because they [didn't like] Eric Holder!
Officer Clarence Habersham was the second officer on the scene in North Charleston, South Carolina when Walter Scott was shot and killed. Habersham is a black officer. Habersham is getting criticism for not doing CPR on Scott as he died.
Price: [He said] he was doing CPR on Mr. Scott, and that he was instrumental on leading the medical [personnel] to the body. Of course, there's no visual signs of that on the video. [...] Is there a double standard? Because we were quick to throw Officer Slager under the bus. [Habersham] has not been indicted, but yet he's getting a lot of ridicule. For me, no matter what happened, I'm concerned about him.
Monroe: [That's] the culture of policing in America. And interestingly enough, not enough info is done in terms of the pressure that cops of color have to endure being in predominately white forces, because a lot of the time they'll just go along to get along, and a lot of times they'll be as equally problematic as white officers.
What do you make of Pope Francis' and the Vatican's decision to ease up on oversight of the Catholic group Leadership Conference of Women Religious?
Price: I think this is a historic moment again. It shows that the current Pope is not held hostage to some of Benedict XVI's antics. Let them be.
Monroe: I give him a little bit of credit considering that the Catholic church either likes our nuns to be flying nuns or singing nuns. [...] It says a lot of things because they run the churches, they run the schools, they run the hospitals, they run the charities.
