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Southland Clergy Voice Support For Rep. Maxine Waters' Statements During Daunte Wright Protest

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Earlier this month, Rep. Maxine Waters took to the streets of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota to march with demonstrators calling for justice in the police shooting death of Daunte Wright.

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Representative Maxine Waters(C) (D-CA) speaks to the media during an ongoing protest at the Brooklyn Center Police Department in Brooklyn Centre, Minnesota on April 17, 2021. - Police officer, Kim Potter, who shot dead Black 20-year-old Daunte Wright in a Minneapolis suburb after appearing to mistake her gun for her Taser was arrested April 14 on manslaughter charges. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)

During the protest, Waters appeared to tell protesters that they needed to get "more confrontational" if the jury in the Derek Chauvin trial did not return a guilty verdict.

When pressed by a reporter on what protesters should do if the jury were to acquit the former Minneapolis police officer, Waters said, "We've got to stay on the street, we've got to get more active, we've got to get more confrontational, we've got to make sure that they know that we mean business."

With those words, the Los Angeles representative sparked outrage. Her comments lit up social media and even got the congresswoman admonished by the judge in Chauvin's case.

But on Tuesday, Waters got a show of support in the Southland with a group of local clergy saying she has always stood up for the marginalized and is an advocate for equitable justice.

"And we've come today to say that her frustration, outrage and anger is justified," Rev. Shane Scott, of Macedonia Baptist Church, said. "These yet to be United States of America has proven to be unjust and inequitable in every sense of the word."

They echoed the congresswoman's calls for continued action and more aggressive protests when necessary.

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