Opening Our Eyes to the Epidemic of Police Violence in America
Floor Speech
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Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, once again, we are moved and compelled to come to the House floor to deal with the seemingly unending problem of police violence in America. Over the last year, we have seen a parade of horribles, examples of police violence caught on video for all of America to see.
We are compelled to ask the question: What more does Congress need to see in order to understand that we have got a problem that requires Democrats and Republicans, people in the House and the Senate, working in partnership with the President to address?
I certainly am of the view that the overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers are hard-working individuals who are there to protect and serve their community; but how can we continue to turn a blind eye to the fact that police violence all across America essentially has presented an epidemic of injustice that we have got to
deal with in a free and democratic society?
What more does the Congress need to see? We have seen 12-year-old Tamir Rice gunned down by a police officer in what many view as a driveby shooting. Tamir Rice didn't present any danger to the officer who simply pulled up and really, without warning, shot him dead to the ground, based on a call that had been made that someone seemed to have a toy gun.
Of course, in New York City, Eric Garner was strangled to death with the use of a choke hold employed by a police officer, despite the fact that, for the previous 20 years, choke holds had been unauthorized as part of the policy of the NYPD.
Eleven different times, Eric Garner, a father of six, said that he couldn't breathe, and on 11 different occasions, the officers who were there failed to respond to Mr. Garner's pleas for help. As a result, he was killed on a New York City street for all the world to see; then a grand jury fails to indict even on simple assault.
Now, of course, we have got the tragedy of Walter Scott, someone who was killed running away from a police officer after having been tased. It is not clear to me that, if a courageous bystander hadn't captured that incident on video, the officer responsible for killing Walter Scott may be patrolling the streets of South Carolina today. What more does Congress need to see to realize that we have got a problem that needs to be addressed?
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New York City has begun an experimental program placing body cameras in a few of the precincts throughout New York City, including the 75th precinct in the east New York community that I represent.
In talking to the commander of the precinct, the officers, while many were initially skeptical, eventually embraced the presence of body cameras for a variety of reasons, one of which is that it often defuses an aggressive encounter because the officers, upon approaching a situation when they are wearing a body camera, are now required to say to the individual citizens they are confronting: This confrontation or this exchange is going to be recorded.
What the officers have found is that, in many instances, that will defuse a situation that otherwise might go in the other direction.
Body cameras are something that should be considered. In fact, many law enforcement officers in departments across the country who have gone down this road have embraced it as technology that benefits the law enforcement community, in addition, of course, to making sure justice takes place when a police officer crosses the line.
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Mr. Speaker, one of the things that we clearly have to grapple with in this country is the fact that the criminal justice system is broken, and there are many components to that. We have got a situation in which far too often a police officer crosses the line, engages in unlawful conduct, and is not held accountable for that conduct. What kind of
incentive does that create for good conduct to take place moving forward if, in the overwhelming majority of instances when police officers cross the line, such as in the Eric Garner case, a grand jury or a local prosecutor will often fail to hold them accountable?
The other problem that we have got to address is of overcriminalization in America, of mass incarceration. If you look at some of these encounters that have taken place and that have gone wrong and that have resulted in tragedy, they often have begun with what was, really, overly aggressive, unnecessary policing strategy being deployed
to tackle, at best, nuisance-like activity.
Eric Garner is dead today because he was selling loose cigarettes, and someone at One Police Plaza gave the order to aggressively police this activity. Crime is down in New York, but there are still a couple hundred homicides committed every year. There is still some gang activity. There are still some assaults taking place. But we want to
use police resources to aggressively go after someone who is selling
loose, untaxed cigarettes?
That is an overcriminalization problem connected to broken windows policing. Walter Scott is dead today because he had a broken taillight. Four children are without a father because Walter Scott had a broken taillight. We have got to evaluate this overly aggressive policing strategy connected to the phenomenon of mass incarceration.
I am pleased to have had the opportunity in this Congress to have worked closely with someone who is one of the leaders in the House of Representatives and in the Capitol in dealing with our broken criminal justice system and who works closely with colleagues on the other side of the aisle, like Trey Gowdy and Jason Chaffetz and others, who are
interested in trying to figure out, collectively, how we can make
America a fairer, more efficient place in terms of our criminal justice
system.
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But most of us, most folks in America do believe that police officers generally are entitled to the benefit of the doubt in the context of a police encounter because of the inherent dangerousness of what law enforcement officers do. Certainly the former mayor of the city of New York famously said--this is Rudolph Giuliani:
In every case, I am going to give police officers the benefit of the doubt.
But there is peril in the misapplication of that standard because if it goes too far, as the gentleman points out, there are some who believe that even if I cross the line, there will be no accountability. And in this particular case what was so chilling about the video, after Walter Scott is gunned down, is that this officer, not knowing that
this entire encounter was covered on video, felt that he could drop something next to the body of Walter Scott and presumably, in his mind, that would be part of the narrative that he would use to get himself exonerated because he understood that he would be entitled to the benefit of the doubt. In the absence of video, in this particular case he could potentially have gotten away with murder.
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If, in fact, there is this blue wall of silence, I ask the question: How can that be good for our democracy when it means that a victim of police violence in most instances will never get equal protection under the law consistent with the 14th Amendment because of this almost impenetrable blue wall of silence?
As we have this conversation about what we are going to do about police violence, it should be a Democratic conversation and a Republican conversation, a Black, a White, a Latino, and an Asian conversation, a blue State conversation--it happened in New York--a red State conversation--it happened in South Carolina. This is an American
problem.
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As we prepare to close, let me, again, make clear that, in my view and the view of, I believe, many throughout this body and across this country, we know that the police officers--the overwhelming majority of law enforcement officials--go to work every day trying to do the right thing.
It is a difficult job; but, because you have the capacity to take a life, we have got to make sure that, when you exercise deadly force, that it is deployed only in circumstances where it is absolutely necessary, not a choke hold resulting in the strangulation of someone who is selling untaxed cigarettes, who pleads for his life 11 times and is killed on video for all of his six children to see.
We don't want to see deadly force used when someone who has been tased is running away. The Supreme Court said in 1985 that you can't use deadly force to stop a fleeing felon. Walter Scott wasn't even a felon. He stopped him because he had a broken taillight.
We just want to make sure that, in America, there is a balance between effective law enforcement on the one hand and a healthy respect for the Constitution and for civil rights and for equal protection under the law for everyone on the other. That is our objective.
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