Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.) said Saturday the rioting caused by anti-police protests should continue in major cities across the country "as long as there’s unrest in our lives."
"There needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there’s unrest in our lives, and unfortunately, there’s plenty to go around," Pressley said on MSNBC's AM Joy with Tiffany Cross.
Pressley said the lasting "public outcry" holds Trump-backing Republican lawmakers accountable for ignoring the needs of American families.
"I’m looking to the public," Pressley said. "You know, this is as much about public outcry and organizing and mobilizing and applying pressure so that this GOP-led Senate and that these governors that continue to carry water for this administration, putting the American people in harm’s way, turning a deaf ear to the needs of our families and our communities. Hold them accountable."
The congresswoman's comments follow a summer of heated demonstrations over racial justice and police brutality, which have in some cities led to riots and mass destruction. In Portland, protesters repeatedly attacked a federal courthouse with fireworks and other explosives. Last weekend, rioters in Chicago broke into and looted stores along the city’s Magnificent Mile and damaged the exterior of a local charity.
Pressley, a member of the far-left group of freshman House Democrats known as "the Squad," supports Black Lives Matter and defunding the police—a step toward what she calls "true reparations." Before the House passed the Democrat-led police reform bill, she and Rep. Justin Amash (I., Mich.) coauthored a bill to end qualified immunity, which protects police from civil lawsuits unless they violated clearly established constitutional rights.