Rep. Rashida Tlaib's (D-MI) profanity-laced start to her congressional career continued on Twitter on Tuesday. But instead of swearing at President Trump, this time she cursed at the Detroit Police Department. In her trite message, she told the police to get rid of their facial recognition tactics, and shared a Vice News story about Sen. Bernie Sanders being the first 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to endorse a nationwide ban of the practice.
.@detroitpolice You should probably rethink this whole facial recognition bulls**t.https://t.co/ZvHEEQxzWB
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) August 20, 2019
Some of the criticisms of facial recognition software is that has been found to misgender transgender and non-binary individuals, make false-positive matches for people of color, and not account for the way that young people’s faces change over time, according to the Vice report. Three U.S. cities, Oakland, CA, San Francisco, CA, and Somerville, MA, have banned the use of it.
But, the Detroit police explained that in their hands the software is not abused. They implored Tlaib to come see for herself first before characterizing them as corrupt.
@RashidaTlaib Before you criticize the software, come to our Real Time Crime Center to see how we @detroitpolice responsibly use it in efforts to identify criminals involved in violent crimes. Let’s set a date. https://t.co/aR7DOjQe2a
— Detroit Police Dept. (@detroitpolice) August 20, 2019
After Tlaib visits, Police Chief James Craig suggested that Tlaib talk to victims who have benefitted from the software.
"Nobody ever talks about the victims in these cases," Craig said. "I would offer a word of caution to the congresswoman about using that kind of language in referring to technology that gives these grieving family members closure."
Tlaib's spokesman Denzel McCampbell said it was a "disingenuous" accusation to make against the congresswoman that she hadn't considered the victims.
Craig also noted that he and Tlaib were at the same ceremony on Sunday to name a Detroit street after former boxing manager Emmanuel Stewart. The police chief finds it "interesting that she never mentioned her concerns when she was face to face."
Tlaib's freshman year in Congress has been livelier than most. In her first week, she told a group of supporters one of her first priorities would be to "impeach the motherf***er." Trump also claims that he remembers seeing her lash out at some of his old campaign rallies.
"I said, 'who is that?'" Trump recalled on Tuesday.
He dubbed the congresswoman "Tlaib with the tears" on Tuesday after she cried at a press conference about her decision not to visit her grandmother in Israel because it would be too "humiliating" after the country initially banned her. As the president explained, Tlaib and the other members of the Squad have said horrible things about Israel and more than one of them support the BDS movement.
He added on Twitter this morning:
Rep Tlaib wants to cut off aid to Israel. This is the new face the of Democrat Party? Read the AOC PLUS 3 statements on their hatred of Jews and Israel. Check out Rep. Omar (the great people of Minnesota won’t stand for this).
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2019