Texas Republican Congressman Chip Roy made what appeared to be a pro-lynching comment during a Hearing of the Chamber Judiciary Committee on the rise in anti-Asian violence and discrimination on Thursday. His comments were immediately criticized by other lawmakers at the hearing, but he responded in a statement after saying “I meant it.”
“We believe in justice. There are old sayings in Texas about finding the whole rope in Texas and getting a tall oak,” Roy said at the hearing on Thursday. “We take justice very seriously. And we must do that. Gather the bandits. That’s what we believe in,” he added. “My concern with this audience is that it seems to want to venture into policing rhetoric in a free society, freedom of speech and away from the rule of law and ending bandits.”
Roy also protested the “Chinese Communist Party” and suggested that the audience was trying to police “rhetoric in a free society”.
Representative Grace Meng of New York, who is the first vice president of the Congressional Pacific American Caucus and testified on Thursday, responded strongly to Roy’s comments.
Meng said Republicans and former President Trump helped incite violence against Asian Americans using language like the “China virus” to describe the coronavirus.
“Your president, your party and your colleagues can talk about problems with any other country you want, but you don’t have to do that by placing a target on the back of Asian Americans across the country, at our grandparents, at our children. This audience was to address the pain and pain of our community, to find solutions, and we will not let you take our voice away from us, “said Meng.
In a statement after the hearing, Roy defended his comments by emphasizing that “more justice” was needed in race-related violence.
“Apparently, some people are freaking out because I used an old expression about finding the whole rope in Texas and a tall oak tree about doing justice against the bad guys. I mean it,” Roy said. “We need more justice and less thoughtful policing. We need to stop evildoers, like those who carried out the attack in Atlanta this week, or cartels that abuse young children. … We must restore order by punching bad actors, not transforming America in an authoritarian state like the Chinese communists who seek to destroy us. “
Roy added, “No excuses.”
But social media users pointed out that the phrase Roy used was not a well-known saying in Texas – but it was similar to a lyric in a song by country singers Toby Keith and Willie Nelson called “Beer for My Horses”. The song includes the phrase “Take all the rope in Texas, find a tall oak, gather all those bad boys, hang them high in the street.”
Asian Americans have been subjected to almost 3,800 hate incidents last year, according to a report released by Stop AAPI Hate. Verbal harassment and evasion accounted for 68% of incidents and physical violence for 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 faced during the coronavirus pandemic.
Thursday’s hearing was set for before a sniper opened fire at three Atlanta area spas, killing eight people, including six women of Asian descent. Suspect sniper Robert Aaron Long, 21, denied the attack was racially motivated, but officials said it was too early to rule out a hate crime. Long told investigators he had a “sex addiction” and saw the spas as a temptation he wanted to eliminate, officials said.