CLEARWATER, Fla. — Orlando Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Demings said on Monday that the insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 must have been something that civil rights leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had to contend with regularly in their fight for racial equality in the early 1960s.

“When the angry mob stormed the Capitol, I was reminded of what it must have been like for Dr. King and so many others involved in the civil rights movement, simply trying to hold America to its promise,” Demings said on Monday, speaking during the virtual MLK Day event sponsored by the Clearwater/Upper Pinellas County branch of the NAACP.

The MLK Day holiday is annually a day of major parades held throughout the Tampa Bay area, but all those events were cancelled or moved online as COVID-19 continues to spread throughout Florida, making it unsafe to hold such large gatherings. 

A host of local public officials – including Congressman Charlie Crist, Pinellas County Commissioner Rene Flowers and Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard – all gave short speeches during the one-hour long event broadcast on the Clearwater NAACP’s website and Facebook page on Monday afternoon.

“In my 53 years I have never seen a time when the need for healing was greater,” said Mayor Hibbard.

“It is apparent that if we are continuing to live by the dream that Dr. Martin Luther King put into place, we have to continue to fight in a non-violent way and make sure that we are changing the policy and direction and the direction and focus of the USA,” added Flowers.

Demings gave the keynote address. The Orlando-based Congresswoman and former Orlando Police Chief broke out as a national figure in 2020, serving as one of the House Democrats “impeachment managers” during the first impeachment trial of President Trump last January. Then in the summer, her law enforcement background put her on demand on cable news shows as Black Lives Matter protests took place.

That positive publicity resulted in her being considered as a potential vice-presidential pick for Joe Biden. She’s seen as a likely candidate to run for statewide office in 2022, possibly for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by March Rubio. 

All told, Demings spent 27 years in law enforcement working for the Orlando Police Department, including serving as the first female police chief in the city’s history from 2007-2011. She noted that on Monday before listing a series of police reforms that she says are needed in the wake of the death of George Floyd last May.

“We, as lawmakers and as a nation, have an obligation to look at hiring standards, to demand that police departments reflect the diversity of the communities they serve and that as a nation we must look at developing some national training standards,” she said, regardless of how large or small the law enforcement agency is.

She also said she supports establishing a national database of police misconduct “so a fired police officer cannot just simply walk into another agency and sign up.”

Demings also cited some of the conclusions from the 1968 Kerner Commission Report. That was the national study commissioned by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967 to investigate the roots of the racial unrest that were then taking place across the country. 

While the report said that the country needed to hire the best and brightest policemen and provide them with the best training and equipment, it also listed issues that Demings said still need to be addressed more than 50 years later.

“We must look at poverty. We must look at unemployment. We must look at substandard wages. We must look at substandard housing. We must deal with substandard education.”

She focused on the significance of a high school education.

“If we know that a child drops out of school every 26 seconds, and we look at our prisoners across America, and we know the overwhelming majority of the people there are Black and brown but did not graduate high school. Could that be a clue that we need to focus more on our children graduating high school?” she said.

She then concluded with one of Dr. King’s most famous quotes.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands during moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands during moments of challenge and controversy.”