Texas Republican Congressman Chip Roy of Texas made a pro-lynch remark during a comment Trial of the House Judiciary on the rise in anti-Asian American violence and discrimination on Thursday. His comments were immediately criticized by other lawmakers during the trial, but he later responded in a statement saying, “I meant it.”
“We believe in justice. There are old words in Texas about finding all the ropes in Texas and getting a tall oak tree,” Roy said during the trial on Thursday. “We take justice very seriously. And we have to do it. Put the bad guys together. That’s what we believe,” he added. “My concern with this trial is that it seems like it wants to risk policing rhetoric in a free society, free speech, and away from the rule of law and taking out bad guys.”
Roy also fought against the ‘Chinese Communist Party’ and suggested that the trial try to police ‘rhetoric in a free society’.
Representative Grace Meng of New York, who is the first vice president of the Congress-Asian Pacific American caucus and testified Thursday, reacted strongly to Roy’s remarks.
Meng said Republicans and former President Trump helped incite violence against Asian Americans by using language such as the ‘China virus’ to describe the coronavirus.
“Your president and your party and your colleagues can talk about issues with any other country you want, but you do not have to do that by sticking the backs of Asian Americans across the country, on our grandparents. on our children. “This trial was to address the hurt and pain of our community, to find solutions, and we will not allow you to take our voice away from us,” Meng said.
In a statement after the trial, Roy defended his remarks, stressing that “more justice” is needed in violence-related races.
‘Apparently some people are scared that I used an old expression about finding all the ropes in Texas and a tall oak tree about justice against bad guys. I meant it, ‘said Roy. “We need more justice and less policing. We need to stop evildoers, such as those who carried out the attack in Atlanta this week, or cartels that abuse small children. turning America into an authoritarian state like the Chinese Communists we want to destroy. ‘
Roy added: “No excuse.”
But social media users pointed out that the rule Roy used was not a well-known saying in Texas, but that it was similar to a lyric from a song by country singers Toby Keith and Willie Nelson called ‘Beer for My Horses’. The song contains the line “Take all the ropes in Texas, find a tall oak tree, make all the bad boys up, hang them high up in the street.”
Asian Americans are subject to almost 3,800 hate incidents in the past year, according to a report issued by Stop AAPI Hate. Verbal harassment and avoidance accounted for 68% of incidents and physical violence was 11%, with more than 503 reports of violence in 2021 alone, the report said. These incidents illustrate the wave of violence that the Asian community experienced during the coronavirus pandemic.
Thursday’s trial was scheduled before a gunman opened fire at three spas in Atlanta, killing eight people, including six women of Asian descent. The suspected gunman, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, denied the attack was racial, but officials said it was still too early to rule out a hate crime. Long said investigators said he had a “sex addiction” and considered the spas a temptation he wanted to eliminate, officials said.