Recognizing Law Enforcement Officers Across the Country

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Biggs for yielding to me.

In 1928, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said: ``In a government of laws, the existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. . . . If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. . . . Crime is contagious.''

Mr. Speaker, let's just look at the lawlessness perpetrated by our own government that the American people have had to endure and for which, regrettably, I have had a front-row seat for in my career here in Congress: Fast and Furious; the IRS attacks on conservatives; Benghazi, where four Americans died; Hillary Clinton's email scandal; the attacks on the press of James Rosen, James Risen, and Sharyl Attkisson; the unmasking of American citizens; Russia-gate; Ukraine- gate; and now, Obama-gate.

Who has paid the time for the crime?

What we are witnessing today in many of America's Democratic-run cities are the repercussions of years of lawlessness and amnesty in Washington, D.C.

Recently, I had a woman leave me a voice mail saying she ``thinks it is totally okay for her to come with her gun and shoot me in the head.'' Only a couple days later, two L.A. County sheriffs were shot in the head.

Do you know what happened as those deputies were fighting for their lives? The mob was blocking the entrance to the emergency room, chanting: ``We hope they die. We hope they die.''

That is how little regard the mob has for the rule of law and their fellow man in their disavowment of the greatest country in the world, the United States of America.

President Trump is right: We must restore law and order. We must defend our police, not just by fully funding them but by increasing the criminal penalties for assaulting officers, bringing violent groups like Antifa and BLM to justice, and applying existing Federal laws like RICO statutes to combat the patterned commission of violent crime.

Ronald Reagan wisely said: ``We must reject the idea that every time a law is broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable'' for his or her actions.

I strongly support law enforcement. I firmly disavow the groups and individuals funding, enabling, and partaking in mob violence. And I call on my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I say to the men and women in blue and brown: Thank you.

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