Tim Scott: Black Republican senator says he was stopped seven times in one year by police

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Senator Tim Scott told the senate floor that he had been stopped seven times by police in one year due to the “colour of his skin”.

The black senator was giving a floor speech about the “deep divide” and “trust gap“ between black people and police across the country - and even within government buildings.

The South Carolina Republican admitted he had been speeding in a few instances, but the “vast majority” of those encounters were “nothing more than driving a new car in the wrong neighborhood or some other reason just as trivial”.

He recounted one incident where the Capitol police chief called him to apologize after an officer had stopped him in the building, reportedly believing he was impersonating a senator by wearing a member’s pin.

“The officer looked at me, a little attitude, and said, 'The pin I know — you I don't. Show me your ID,’” Mr Scott said. ”Later that evening I received a phone call from his supervisor apologizing.”

The call from the police chief was "at least" the third such call he had received since joining the senate in 2013.

He said his former staff ended up selling his Chrysler 300 car out of “frustration” as he had been pulled over by police too many times “for driving a nice car”.

“I have felt the anger, the frustration, the sadness and the humiliation that comes with feeling like you’re being targeted for nothing more than being just yourself,” Mr Scott said.

His remarks come after police officers killed two black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, in Louisiana and Minnesota, and a 25-year-old shot dead five police officers in Dallas in retaliation days later.

Mr Scott said that people’s frustration and anger was no reason to break the law.

“There's never, ever an acceptable reason to harm a member of our law enforcement,” he said in his floor speech.

Yet he asked people not to "ignore" racism, which could leave the "American family blind", just because other people might not personally experience or witness discrimination themselves.

President Barack Obama said at the memorial that nobody is “entirely innocent” and that no institution is “immune” to racism.

He stressed that the US is "not even close" to bridging the gap between police and the communities they protect.