S. HRG. 113–895 

THE STATE OF CIVIL AND HUMAN 

RIGHTS IN THE UNITED STATES 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, 

CIVIL RIGHTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

DECEMBER 9, 2014 

Serial No. J–113–77 

Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary 

( 
THE STATE OF CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE UNITED STATES 
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

28–427 PDF WASHINGTON : 2018

S. HRG. 113–895 

THE STATE OF CIVIL AND HUMAN 

RIGHTS IN THE UNITED STATES 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, 

CIVIL RIGHTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

DECEMBER 9, 2014 

Serial No. J–113–77 

Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary 

( 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY 

PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont, Chairman 

DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California 

CHUCK SCHUMER, New York 

DICK DURBIN, Illinois 

SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island 

AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota 

AL FRANKEN, Minnesota 

CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware 

RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut 

MAZIE HIRONO, Hawaii 

CHUCK GRASSLEY, Iowa, Ranking Member 

ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah 

JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama 

LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina 

JOHN CORNYN, Texas 

MICHAEL S. LEE, Utah 

TED CRUZ, Texas 

JEFF FLAKE, Arizona 

KRISTINE LUCIUS, Chief Counsel and Staff Director 

KOLAN DAVIS, Republican Chief Counsel and Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS

DICK DURBIN, Illinois, Chairman 

AL FRANKEN, Minnesota 

CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware 

RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut 

MAZIE HIRONO, Hawaii 

TED CRUZ, Texas, Ranking Member 

LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina 

JOHN CORNYN, Texas 

ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah 

JOSEPH ZOGBY, Democratic Chief Counsel 

SCOTT KELLER, Republican Chief Counsel 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

DECEMBER 9, 2014, 2:30 P.M. 

STATEMENTS OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS 

Page 

Cornyn, Hon. John, a U.S. Senator from the State of Texas ............................... 7 

Cruz, Hon. Ted, a U.S. Senator from the State of Texas ..................................... 4 

Durbin, Hon. Dick, a U.S. Senator from the State of Illinois .............................. 1 

prepared statement .......................................................................................... 86 

Franken, Hon. Al, a U.S. Senator from the State of Minnesota .......................... 7 

Klobuchar, Hon. Amy, a U.S. Senator from the State of Minnesota ................... 6 

Leahy, Hon. Patrick J., a U.S. Senator from the State of Vermont, 

prepared statement .......................................................................................... 83 

WITNESSES 

Witness List ............................................................................................................. 39 

Alexander, Cedric, Psy.D., President, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, and Public Safety Director, DeKalb County, Georgia . 19 

prepared statement .......................................................................................... 40 

Booker, Hon. Cory A., a U.S. Senator from the State of New Jersey ................. 8 

Ellison, Hon. Keith, a Representative in Congress from the State of Minnesota .................................................................................................................... 13 

Gutie ́rrez, Hon. Luis, a Representative in Congress from the State of Illinois .. 11 

Henderson, Wade, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Leadership 

Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Washington, DC ............................... 16 

prepared statement .......................................................................................... 47 

Murphy, Laura, Director, Washington Legislative Office, American Civil 

Liberties Union, Washington, DC ....................................................................... 21 

prepared statement .......................................................................................... 64 

MISCELLANEOUS SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD 

Abraham, Rabbi Joel N., Scotch Plains, New Jersey, et al., statement .............. 159 

Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School, 

New Haven, Connecticut, statement .................................................................. 326 

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Washington, DC, 

statement .............................................................................................................. 363 

American Association of University Women (AAUW), Washington, DC, statement ...................................................................................................................... 353 

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Washington Legislative Office, Washington, DC, statement .......................................................................................... 648 

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 

statement .............................................................................................................. 383 

American Psychological Association (APA), Washington, DC, statement ........... 114 

Amnesty International USA, New York, New York, statement .......................... 475 

Anti-Defamation League (ADL), New York, New York, statement ..................... 498 

Arthur Liman Public Interest Program at Yale Law School, The, New Haven, 

Connecticut, statement ........................................................................................ 180 

Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), Washington, DC, statement ........ 447 

Barry, Rob, and Coulter Jones, ‘‘Hundreds of Police Killings Are Uncounted 

in Federal Stats: FBI Data Differs from Local Counts on Justifiable Homicides,’’ The Wall Street Journal, December 3, 2014, article ............................. 685 
Page

IV 

Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, New York, New York, statement ...................................................................................................................... 169 

Bennett, Sean, Kalamazoo, Michigan, statement ................................................. 671 

Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, New York, 

New York, and Washington, DC, statement ...................................................... 581 

Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth (CFSY), Washington, DC, statement ...................................................................................................................... 604 

Castaneda, Kimberly, Northeastern Illinois University Undergraduate Student, ‘‘Under the Threat of the Gun, Invisible Betrayal 3: Police Sexual 

Misconduct,’’ special project created for Women’s All Points Bulletin 

(WAPB) and victims of police sexual assault, December 2, 2014, report ........ 407 

Castro, Martin R., Chairman, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Washington, 

DC, statement ...................................................................................................... 345 

Center for American Progress (CAP), Washington, DC, statement .................... 565 

Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), New York, New York, statement ........ 316 

Center for HIV Law and Policy (CHLP), The, New York, New York, statement ...................................................................................................................... 274 

Center for Reproductive Rights, New York, New York, statement ..................... 210 

Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign (CAEC) and Chicago Independent Human 

Rights Council (CIHRC), Chicago, Illinois, statement ...................................... 432 

Chinyere, Sahar, Founding Spokesperson, Stop Non-Consensual Experiments 

on All World Citizens (SnoEOawc), Astoria, New York, statement ................. 654 

Chu, Hon. Judy, a Representative in Congress from the State of California, 

statement .............................................................................................................. 601 

Coalition for the Peoples’ Agenda, Atlanta, Georgia; Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Atlanta, Georgia; and Cold Case Justice Initiative at 

Syracuse University College of Law, Syracuse, New York; jointly submitted 

statement .............................................................................................................. 136 

Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute, New York, New York, and 

Northeastern University School of Law Program on Human Rights and 

the Global Economy, Boston, Massachusetts, statement .................................. 243 

Common Cause, Washington, DC, statement ....................................................... 372 

Constitution Project, The, (TCP), Washington, DC, statement ........................... 517 

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Washington, DC, statement ... 306 

De ̄mos, New York, New York, statement .............................................................. 190 

Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), Washington, DC, statement 282 

Ferguson Action Network, statement .................................................................... 457 

Ferguson to Geneva Delegation, Members, Ferguson, Missouri; Organization 

for Black Struggle, St. Louis, Missouri; and Hands Up United, Ferguson, 

Missouri; jointly submitted statement ............................................................... 387 

Fleming, Richard Max, M.D., J.D., statement on the International Covenant 

on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) treaty ..................................................... 89 

Hernandez, Israel, December 8, 2014, letter—redacted ....................................... 262 

Hindu American Foundation (HAF), Washington, DC, statement ...................... 379 

Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Washington, DC, statement ........................... 508 

Human Rights First, New York, New York, and Washington, DC, statement .. 468 

Human Rights Watch, New York, New York, statement ..................................... 173 

Illinois Justice Project, Chicago, Illinois, statement ............................................. 123 

Indigenous Peoples Caucus Southwest Native Cultures, Activist Bettina Cruz, 

Geneva, Switzerland, statement ......................................................................... 99 

Interfaith Alliance, Washington, DC, statement .................................................. 156 

Jefferson, Jon, and Jane McPherson, statement—redacted ................................. 384 

Juvenile Justice Initiative, Evanston, Illinois, statement .................................... 357 

Kelly-James, Latrina, resident, Charlotte, North Carolina, statement .............. 254 

Kollikkathara, Khalid, statement ........................................................................... 103 

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Washington, DC, statement 543 

Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, The, Washington, DC, 

statement .............................................................................................................. 615 

Lowery, Wesley, ‘‘How many police shootings a year? No one knows,’’ The 

Washington Post, September 8, 2014, article ..................................................... 679 

Mary Turner Project, Valdosta, Georgia, statement ............................................. 527 

Masayesva, Vernon, Director, Black Mesa Trust, Kykotsmovi, Arizona, statement ...................................................................................................................... 418 

Medical Whistleblower Advocacy Network, Washington, DC, statement ........... 126 

Miami Committee on State Violence, Miami, Florida, December 8, 2014, letter 257 

Muslim Advocates, Oakland, California, statement ............................................. 673 
Page

V 

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Washington Bureau, Washington, DC, statement ...................................................... 487 

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal 

Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), New York, New York, statement ...................................................................................................................... 421 

National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund, Los Angeles, California, statement ........................................... 197 

National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations In America (N’COBRA), Washington, DC, statement .......................................................................................... 534 

National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations In America (N’COBRA), Washington, DC, and Chicago Alliance Against Racial and Political Repression 

(CAARPR), Chicago, Illinois, jointly submitted statement ............................... 495 

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC), Washington, 

DC, statement ...................................................................................................... 554 

National Disability Rights Network (NDRN), Washington, DC, statement ....... 632 

National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC), Dearborn, 

Michigan, statement ............................................................................................ 483 

National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, Seattle, Washington, statement ................................................................................................. 270 

National Urban League, New York, New York, statement .................................. 334 

NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, Washington, DC, statement ...................................................................................................................... 473 

Nolan, Thomas, Ed.D., statement .......................................................................... 146 

PEN American Center, Inc. (PEN), New York, New York, statement ................ 393 

Perez, Julia, MSEE, Associate Director, ‘‘The Harvest,’’ and former child 

laborer in the U.S., statement ............................................................................ 218 

Phonesavanh, Alecia, Georgia resident, statement ............................................... 577 

Project Vote, Washington, DC, statement ............................................................. 292 

Rabin, Norman C., December 9, 2014, email letter .............................................. 598 

Rabin, Norman C., statement ................................................................................. 608 

Reyes, Hon. Sean D., Attorney General, State of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, 

statement .............................................................................................................. 414 

Schaghticoke Indians, Kent, Connecticut, December 8, 2014, letter ................... 532 

Sentencing Project, The, Washington, DC, statement .......................................... 296 

Sharp, Fawn, President, Quinault Indian Nation, and President, Affiliated 

Tribes of Northwest Indians, Olympic Peninsula, Washington, statement .... 638 

Sikh Coalition, New York, New York, statement and attachments .................... 224 

South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), Takoma Park, Maryland, 

statement .............................................................................................................. 463 

Southeast Indigenous Peoples’ Center, Eatonton, Georgia, statement ............... 556 

Southeast Indigenous Peoples’ Center, attachment I .................................... 558 

Southeast Indigenous Peoples’ Center, attachment II .................................. 563 

Southwest Native Cultures, Albuquerque, New Mexico, December 8, 2014, 

letter ...................................................................................................................... 515 

Statement submitted for the record ....................................................................... 253 

Stewart, Sonja, Michael Stewart, and Rachel Stewart, family of shooting 

victim Matthew David Stewart, Ogden, Utah, statement ................................ 594 

Union for Reform Judaism and Central Conference of American Rabbis, New 

York, New York, statement ................................................................................. 205 

US Human Rights Network (USHRN), Atlanta, Georgia, statement ................. 289 

Voting Rights Forward (VRF), December 8, 2014, letter ..................................... 343 

Zawodniak, Margaret, statement ........................................................................... 385 

(1) 

THE STATE OF CIVIL AND HUMAN 

RIGHTS IN THE UNITED STATES 

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2014 

UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS

AND HUMAN RIGHTS, 

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, 

Washington, DC. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:30 p.m., in Room 

SH–216, Hart Senate Office Building, Hon. Dick Durbin, Chairman 

of the Subcommittee, presiding. 

Present: Senators Schumer, Durbin, Whitehouse, Klobuchar, 

Franken, Coons, Blumenthal, Cornyn, and Cruz. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DICK DURBIN, 

A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS 

Chairman DURBIN. Today’s hearing is going to deal with a serious issue. I trust that members of the public here will take them 

seriously as we all do. 

I want to note at the outset that the rules of the Senate prohibit 

a showing of approbation or disapprobation, as they say—to put it 

in English, outbursts, clapping, and demonstrations. This includes 

blocking the view of people around you. Please be mindful of those 

rules as we conduct this hearing and I am thankful that the Capitol Police are here to ensure the safety and security of everyone 

present. 

Our identity as Americans is based on ideas and values. Not ethnicity nor creed. This is what makes our Nation unique. But sense 

its founding, there has been a divide between the promise and reality of America. 

The man who wrote in our Declaration of Independence that ‘‘All 

men are created equal’’ was a slaveholder. The Constitution, our 

founding charter, which those of us in Congress swear to uphold 

and defend, originally treated African Americans as property and 

women as second-class citizens. 

The history of our country has been a long, slow, and painful 

march. Brave men and women have fought and sacrificed, sometimes even giving their lives in the struggle to create a ‘‘more perfect union’’ that our national charter promised. 

Many of us think about the Greatest Generation, the men and 

women who served our Nation so valiantly in World War II. I recently read a story that is an illustration of what America was like 

in World War II. 
2 

Italians and Germans who were captured in combat fighting our 

soldiers were brought to the United States as prisoners of war. 

They were held in places like military forts, like Fort Benning, 

Georgia. At Fort Benning, Georgia, the Italian and German prisoners of war had access to make purchases in the base exchange. 

African-American soldiers did not have that opportunity or that access. 

Some 2.3 million Americans are incarcerated. That is triple the 

amount of 30 years ago, 25 percent for drug offenses. Whites engage in drug offenses at a higher rate than African Americans, but 

African Americans are incarcerated at a rate 10 times greater than 

White Americans for these offenses. 

America has changed. That same military that discriminated 

against African Americans back during the World War II era is 

now a Nation with an African-American Commander-in-Chief. The 

election of our first Black President shows we have come a long 

way as a Nation, but it is important to recognize and to say very 

clearly that there is still a challenge with racism in America and 

we still have more work to do. 

This Subcommittee has tried to look intently not just to our past, 

but to our present and to our future to examine what more needs 

to be done to protect civil and human rights in America. We tried 

to understand in this Subcommittee the human impact of the 

issues we debate by hearing directly from those most affected. We 

have given a platform to voices that are not often heard in the 

halls of Congress. 

I would like to show a brief video to remind us all what is at 

stake. 

[Whereupon, the video was played.] 

Chairman DURBIN. In 2001, Eugenia Jennings was sentenced to almost 22 years 

in prison for selling a small amount of crack cocaine. Her brother, Cedric Parker, 

testified at a 2009 hearing on the sentencing disparity between crack and powdered 

cocaine. 

Mr. PARKER. Of course, you know my name is Cedric Parker. I am from Alton, 

Illinois, and I am here to tell you the things my sister, Eugenia, would say if she 

was here today. The severity of the mandatory minimums, and especially the sharp 

disparity between those for crack and powdered cocaine, have touched my family directly. Eugenia cannot be here because she is in Federal prison for selling crack cocaine. 

Chairman DURBIN. In 2010, after 18 years in prison including 16 years in solitary 

confinement, Anthony Graves became the 12th death row inmate to be exonerated 

in Texas. In 2012, he testified before this Subcommittee at the first ever congressional hearing on solitary confinement. 

Mr. GRAVES. I have been free for almost two years and I still cry at night because 

no one out here can relate to what I have gone through. I battle with these feelings 

of loneliness. I have tried therapy, but it didn’t work. 

Chairman DURBIN. In August 2012, a gunman killed 6 people at a Sikh temple 

in Oak Creek, including Harpreet Singh Saini’s mother. One month after his mother 

died, Harpreet became the first Sikh ever to testify in Congress when he appeared 

at a Subcommittee hearing on hate crime. 

Mr. SAINI. Senators, I came here today to ask the Government to give my mother 

the dignity of being a statistic. The FBI does not track hate crimes against Sikhs. 

My mother and those shot that day will not even count on a Federal form. We cannot solve a problem we refuse to recognize. 

Chairman DURBIN. In 2013, Sybrina Fulton testified at a Subcommittee hearing 

on the impact of so-called Stand Your Ground Laws. Her 17-year-old son, Trayvon, 

was shot and killed while walking through a residential neighborhood in Sanford, 

Florida. 
3 

Ms. FULTON. It is unfortunate what has happened with Trayvon. That is why I 

feel like it is so important for me to be here so that you all can at least put a face 

with what has happened with this tragedy. 

Chairman DURBIN. Lucia McBath also testified at the Subcommittee’s hearing on 

Stand Your Ground Laws. Her 17-year-old son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed 

while listening to music with his friends in a car outside a convenience store in 

Jacksonville, Florida. 

Ms. MCBATH. But you can never really know my boy because an angry man who 

owned a gun, kept it close at hand and chose to demonstrate unbridled hatred one 

balmy evening for reasons I will never understand. 

Chairman DURBIN. Damon Thibodeaux spent 15 years in solitary confinement at 

a Louisiana State penitentiary before he was exonerated in 2012. In 2013, Damon 

testified about his experience at the Subcommittee’s second hearing on solitary confinement. 

Mr. THIBODEAUX. I do not condone what those who have killed and committed 

other serious offenses have done, but I also do not condone what we do to them 

when we put them in solitary for years on end and treat them as subhuman. We 

are better than that. As a civilized society, we should be better than that. 

Chairman DURBIN. Patti Saylor’s son, Ethan, who had Down Syndrome, was 

killed when he was forcibly removed from a movie theater in Frederick, Maryland, 

by three off-duty Sheriff’s deputies. Patti told Ethan’s story at the Subcommittee’s 

2014 hearing on law enforcement responses to disabled Americans. 

Ms. SAYLOR. They placed him on the ground, prone restraint, put handcuffs on, 

and my son died of asphyxiation on that floor of that movie theater for that $10 

movie ticket. Ethan was not escalated. He was not threatening. He was not in crisis. 

[Whereupon, the video ended.] 

Chairman DURBIN. I have often said this Committee needs to 

focus on legislation, not lamentation. We have taken the words of 

our witnesses and translated them into action. 

I worked with the first Ranking Subcommittee Member here, 

Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who is retiring this year. Together we 

passed four laws that give the Government more power to prosecute human rights abusers. In 2012, the Obama administration, 

under this authority, deported Liberian Warlord George Boley for 

using child soldiers. 

After we learned of the powerful testimony of Cedric Parker, I 

worked with Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama and other Members 

of the Committee to pass the Fair Sentencing Act which significantly reduced the sentencing disparity between crack and powder 

cocaine and repealed a mandatory minimum sentence for the first 

time since the days of the Nixon administration. 

After the Subcommittee held the first ever Congressional hearings on solitary confinement where we heard from Anthony Parker 

Graves and Damon Thibodeaux, the Federal Bureau of Prisons 

agreed to my request to submit to the first independent assessment 

of its solitary confinement policies and practices. 

After we heard the brave testimony of Harpreet Singh Saini, I 

successfully pushed the Justice Department to begin tracking hate 

crimes against Sikh Americans, Arab Americans, and Hindu Americans. But we have been reminded in recent days that there is still 

much work to do. 

When our Government still believes it is acceptable, in the name 

of security, to profile people based on race, national origin or religion, there is still more work to do. When Muslim Americans are 

the targets of violent crime simply because of their religion, there 

is still more work to do. 

When States around the country draw up laws that make it 

harder for minority communities to vote, there is still more work 
4 

to do. When unarmed African Americans, men and boys, are 

killed—names like Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Michael Brown, 

Eric Garner—bring tears to our eyes, there is still more work to do. 

When protestors take to the streets to shout out ‘‘Hands up. 

Don’t shoot. I can’t breathe. Black lives matter.’’ There is still more 

work to do. 

When a significant part of the American family is 

disenfranchised and does not trust politics or criminal justice, there 

is still more work to do. Congress must accept its responsibility. 

We need to start with bipartisan efforts to protect civil and human 

rights. 

We should pass the Smarter Sentencing Act which I introduced 

with Senator Mike Lee; cosponsored by Senator Leahy, the Chairman of our full Committee; Senator Ted Cruz, my Ranking Member 

on this Subcommittee; and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. That 

is quite a broad spectrum of political belief and we all support this 

bill. 

We should restore Federal voting rights for ex-offenders, a cause 

which has been championed by Senators Ben Cardin and Rand 

Paul. There are some 5.8 million Americans who after paying their 

debt to society, still are denied a right to vote. And this type of disenfranchisement has a disproportionate impact on people of color. 

We need to pass the Voting Rights Amendment Act which was authored by Chairman Leahy and Republican Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner. This bipartisan legislation is a response to the Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County decision. 

This will be my last hearing as Chairman of the Subcommittee 

before I turn over the gavel to Senator Cruz, the incoming Chairman. Clearly there is much work to do and I look forward to working with Senator Cruz in the 114th Congress as we continue to 

struggle to create a more perfect union. 

Senator Cruz. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. TED CRUZ, 

A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS 

Senator CRUZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member 

witnesses who are here today. There is no more important role for 

the United States Senate than to carefully guard and protect the 

civil rights of every American. We take an oath to uphold the Constitution and that is a promise every American rightly should hold 

us accountable to honor. 

The Chairman and I agree on a number of matters concerning 

civil rights. We, as he mentioned, both cosponsored the Smarter 

Sentencing Act which would reduce mandatory minimums for nonviolent drug offenders and help restore the proper balance of federalism, deterrence, and proportionality to these laws. 

We are also both cosponsors of the USA Freedom Act which I believe strikes a better balance between the need to combat terrorism 

through effective intelligence and at the same time protecting the 

privacy rights of every day Americans. I would note additionally, 

that the hearing this Committee held on solitary confinement policy earlier this year was, I think, a positive and productive hearing 

that shed light on a practice of law enforcement at the Federal 

level and State level that needs to change. 
5 

All of those are positive. Yet, at the same time, civil rights remains a challenging topic in this country, a topic that is perceived 

differently by people of different racial backgrounds, ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic backgrounds. We see the unfortunate reality in the last 6 years. Income and equality has increased, that 

in the last 6 years the rich have gotten richer. The top 1 percent 

today earn a higher share of our income than any year since 1928 

and yet people who are struggling—young people, Hispanics, African Americans, single moms—are finding their lives harder and 

harder and harder. 

When it comes to civil rights, I think there is no civil right more 

important than the right of every child to access a quality education and in my view the most compelling civil rights issue of the 

21st century is the need to expand school choice and educational 

options so that every child, regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of zip code, regardless of wealth, has a fair opportunity to receive an excellent education. 

Unfortunately, that has not been a focus of this Committee for 

the past 2 years. I am hopeful it will become a focus of the Committee in the coming years. 

I would note, as well, that a disturbing pattern has been demonstrated over the last several years of the Federal Government 

violating the constitutional rights of the citizenry, whether it is the 

IRS disregarding the First Amendment rights of citizens, asking individual citizens, tell us what books you are reading, tell us the 

content of your prayers. Whether it is a consistent disregard for the 

Second Amendment, whether it is a disregard for religious freedom 

including, unfortunately, the Federal Government right now litigating against the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic convent of 

nuns who have taken vows of poverty, who devote their lives to 

caring for the poor and elderly and yet they are in court, with the 

Federal Government trying to impose millions of dollars of fines on 

them in order to force the nuns to pay for abortion-inducing drugs, 

contrary to the religious faith. 

Beyond that, we have seen a pattern of lawlessness from the 

Federal Government that should trouble anyone concerned about 

civil liberties, concerned about the Bill of Rights. In my capacity as 

the Ranking Member on this Committee, we have issued a series 

of five reports cataloging the disregard of the Federal Constitution, 

the disregard of the Bill of Rights, from the administration. Indeed, 

we cataloged 22 cases where the Federal Government has gone before the U.S. Supreme Court defending expanded Federal power 

and has been rejected unanimously 9–to–nothing. 

In one of those cases, the Department of Justice went before the 

U.S. Supreme Court and said the Bill of Rights says nothing about 

whether the Federal Government can put a GPS locator on any 

citizen’s car. The position of the Department of Justice was that 

that does not require probable cause, it does not require articulable 

suspicion. Indeed under DOJ’s position, every witness who attended this hearing today, every individual citizen who came, the 

Federal Government could go and place a GPS on your automobile 

outside without raising any Fourth Amendment concerns whatsoever. 
6 

That was an extraordinary position. Thankfully, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Department of Justice’s views 9–to–nothing. 

We need to be vigilant defending the civil rights of every American and I look forward to this Committee, the larger Judiciary 

Committee, and to the Senate continuing to do so and we need to 

have a particular responsibility to safeguard the Bill of Rights. 

I would note the saddest moment during my time in the Senate 

was when 54 Senate Democrats cast a vote for a Constitutional 

Amendment to repeal free speech protections of the First Amendment. That was not consistent with our obligations to protect civil 

liberties and I am hopeful going forward we will be vigilant protecting the civil liberties of every American. 

Thank you. 

Chairman DURBIN. Thank you, Senator Cruz. 

We are going to turn to our first witness panel. I want to welcome our colleague, Senator Cory Booker, Congressman Luis 

Gutie ́rrez, and Congressman Keith Ellison. 

We are going to give Senator Klobuchar an opportunity to introduce Congressman Ellison. I want to note that Congressman Judy 

Chu, Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, 

had a schedule conflict and could not join us. 

Each of our witnesses are going to have 5 minutes to make a 

statement and answer questions that may come up afterwards. I 

will acknowledge two Members and then turn to Senator Klobuchar 

to acknowledge the presence of Congressman Ellison. 

First to testify today will be Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. 

Last month he was re-elected to serve in the Senate, 1 year after 

winning a special election. 

Senator Booker serves on the Committees of Commerce, Science 

and Transportation; Small Business; and Environment. He is currently the only Senate Member of the Congressional Black Caucus. 

Following him will be Congressman Luis Gutie ́rrez from my 

State of Illinois, last month re-elected to serve his 12th term representing the 4th District. He is a Member of the Congressional 

Hispanic Caucus, and serves on the House Judiciary Committee 

and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He 

previously testified before this Subcommittee at our hearing on racial profiling in 2012 and our hearing on Stand Your Ground Laws 

in 2013. Congressman Gutie ́rrez will follow Senator Booker. 

Senator Klobuchar. 

INTRODUCTION OF HON. KEITH ELLISON, A REPRESENTATIVE 

IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MINNESOTA, BY 

HON. AMY KLOBUCHAR, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE 

OF MINNESOTA 

Senator KLOBUCHAR. Thank you very much. It is great to be here 

with Senator Booker and Congressman Gutie ́rrez. Thank you so 

much for being here. 

I am really here to recognize my friend, Keith Ellison. Keith and 

I go way back to when I was a prosecutor, the chief prosecutor in 

Hennepin County and he was a criminal defense lawyer, but somehow we have remained friends through it all. I think it is a testament to everything that he has stood for. 
7 

Before he came to Congress, again, he also did a lot of civil rights 

work and so it prepared him for the work that he has done in Congress. He was the first Muslim in Congress and we are very proud 

of that in Minnesota. He is a strong voice for justice and civil 

rights. 

We have worked on several bills together, environmental bills 

and other things, but I think the thing that is most appropriate for 

this discussion today is the Same Day Registration Act, a bill that 

I am carrying and working with Senator Tester on in the Senate 

and he has it in the House and it would reduce barriers to voting. 

When we think about the grand jury issues and who serves on 

grand juries, this is actually relevant, Chairman Durbin. It is relevant because the list for the grand jury comes from voter roles. 

They also come from other places, especially in Hennepin County, 

where we work to make sure other lists were included for who 

serves on grand juries. 

So when you limit who can vote, you actually also limit who can 

serve on grand juries because that is where you get your source for 

people that serve on grand juries if you want to have grand juries 

that reflect our community as well as law enforcement that reflect 

our community. 

We have done a lot of great work in Hennepin County with DNA 

and with other things, videotaping interrogations that we are 

proud of, but I think that this is important to think about with the 

voter issues. There is a connection. 

Thank you very much and we are glad to have you here, Congressman Ellison. 

Senator CORNYN. Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman DURBIN. Just one second, please. Twin Cities, twin introductions. Senator Franken would like to say a word. 

INTRODUCTION OF HON. KEITH ELLISON, A REPRESENTATIVE 

IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MINNESOTA, BY 

HON. AL FRANKEN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF 

MINNESOTA 

Senator FRANKEN. Well first, I just want to associate myself with 

Senator Klobuchar’s remarks, mainly about Keith, less about the 

grand jury, but that is important too. 

Keith has been someone who has been talking about this, these 

encounters between members of the minority community and law 

enforcement long before we have gotten to the recent challenges 

that we are talking about today and that people have been talking 

about. I am very proud of Congressman Ellison. 

Chairman DURBIN. Senator Cornyn. 

Senator CORNYN. Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to know if it 

would be in order to make a brief statement. 

Chairman DURBIN. Without objection, please. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN CORNYN, 

A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS 

Senator CORNYN. I appreciate that. I just want to add a couple 

of words by way of thanks to you for convening this hearing to talk 

about a very important issue to all Americans and that is the state 

of civil and human rights in this country of ours. 
8 

I know your focus is primarily going to be on the criminal justice 

system and I would say that I hope that this hearing will take a 

long view and not just a short-term view. Obviously on our minds, 

the recent tragedies of what have occurred are fresh, but I think 

caution would tell us that we ought to wait until there has been 

a thorough investigation and all of the facts revealed before we 

draw any conclusions. 

But I also worry that just the recent tragedies will somehow distract us in some ways from the great successes that law enforcement has had since the crime waves of the 1980s and 1990s. Since 

1993, violent crime rates are down 48 percent in this country. Law 

enforcement officer death rates are down 37 percent. Homicide 

rates are down 50 percent. Robbery rates are down 56 percent and 

property crime rates are down 40 percent. So while we know that 

there are incidents that deserve and must be investigated and follow the facts where ever they must lead, I hope we keep that success in mind as well as part of the overall context. 

I would just finally say that we have tried to get Senator Reid 

to take up some bipartisan legislation, part of what you mentioned 

earlier, the Sentencing Act that you and Senator Cruz and others 

are working on, but also I want to mention the Recidivism Reduction and Public Safety Act that Senator Whitehouse and I cosponsored here in the Committee that got—if I am not mistaken—unanimous support in the Committee, but we have just been unable— 

well, we have got two people that did not agree with us yet. We 

hope to convince them. 

We were not able to get time on the floor to be able to take that 

up. My hope is after the new year, that we will be able to get both 

of these bills up on the floor and thoroughly debate these issues because I think we have seen that this is not an area where partisanship has any role to play, that working together we can come up 

with some better solutions on our criminal justice system even as 

we insist that tragedies like the ones that are fresh in our minds 

are thoroughly investigated and that we leave no stone unturned. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman DURBIN. Thank you, Senator Cornyn. Let us get together, all of us interested in those two bills, and make sure it is 

a priority in our new Congress. 

Now let me recognize our colleague, Senator Cory Booker. 

STATEMENT OF HON. CORY A. BOOKER, 

A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY 

Senator BOOKER. I want to thank the Chairman and the Ranking 

Member for having this hearing and I want to thank all of my colleagues who are before me, each and every one of you I have had 

discussions with, very encouraging discussions, around these 

issues. 

You said very specifically, and I want to honor that, that the 

time for lamentations has passed. The time for legislation is upon 

us. I want to apologize if it seems that I am going off of that directive, but I will end up right there. 

This is a very, very personal issue for me, this evolution of the 

United States toward its ideals. Children from Newark, New Jer-
9 

sey, to Oakland, California, stand up every day and say the pledge 

of allegiance that we are a Nation with liberty and justice for all. 

But these last few weeks, we have seen tens of thousands of 

Americans taking to the streets in anguish and rage and frustration. I agree with Senator Cornyn that it is too early in many ways 

to draw conclusions when there are Federal investigations still 

going on on many of those issues. 

I appreciate the sensibility of his remarks, but please understand 

that the anguish that folks are feeling on the streets, the anguish 

that has penetrated this body and has had me pulled aside by Senate pages, and many people we walk by, in this body who do the 

dignified important work, yet menial work, who have asked me, 

please do something about this. 

What is that ‘‘this’’ they are talking about? I, as many of you 

know, was raised in a community which my family, in 1969, the 

year of my birth, was the first Black family to integrate this area. 

My classmates and teammates were all White, growing up. My 

dearest and closest friends now, I feel blessed and privileged that 

I have people who are like blood to me of all different backgrounds. 

But I know growing up our experiences as our parents talked to 

us about police officers, talked to us about behavior, there was dramatic differences between the exhortations of Black parents, Latino 

parents, and White parents. I remember, distinctly, my parents lecturing me with anger in their voice that I did not have the margin 

of error when it comes to experimenting with drugs or other behaviors that others have. 

What I want to do right now is put this in context of what you 

called us to talk about, which is legislation. And put it to a context 

to a horrible history in our country, that history of bias that we are 

desperately trying to work our way out of. 

In my lifetime, we have seen something happen that is remarkable on the planet Earth, which is the explosion of the American 

prison system to the point now where America has 5 percent of the 

globe’s population, but 25 percent of the world’s—of humanity’s imprisoned people. And by God, we do not have a country that has 

more criminals, more criminality, more crime intent people than 

China or Russia or India. 

That explosion of criminality has made us see in the last 30 

years an 800 percent increase in the Federal prison population. 

Half of those prisoners at the Federal level and the overwhelming 

majority on the national level are nonviolent offenders—nonviolent, 

not picking up guns, not beating people in the streets, not assault. 

We as Americans, unlike any other country, bear the burden of 

spending a quarter of a trillion dollars carrying this system. The 

point that is felt in the anguish of staff I talk to here in the Senate 

and people protesting is not the specifics, necessarily of cases, but 

of the knowledge that we all have, that none of my colleagues, Republican or Democrats, have denied to me that this system is woefully biased against minorities in our country. 

The data screams that we all have access to and that we all 

know—that there is no difference—no difference, for example, in 

marijuana usage between Blacks and Whites in this country, none 

whatsoever. The last three Presidents of the United States admit-
10 

ted to using marijuana—and I say for the record, one said he did 

not inhale. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator BOOKER. But yet, an African American is about 3.7 times 

more likely to be arrested for marijuana usage than someone that 

is White. That is a fact. 

We know we have a criminal justice system that has 

uncontainable outcomes that do not reflect the highest values that 

children of every ilk pledge allegiance to, values that we swear 

oaths to, that we should have what that building across the way 

says, powerfully written in stone ‘‘equal justice under the law.’’ 

And what do I mean by some of these things that jump up and 

call to the conscience of this country? We have a Nation where African Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, but 40 

percent of the imprisoned population. In my State, it is 13 percent 

and 60-plus percent of the prison population. 

Nonviolent offenses—that according to the 2012 report for the 

U.S. Sentencing Commission, between 2007 and 2009, drug sentences for African-American men were 13.1 percent longer. We 

know that Latino youth today—by the age of 23, 44 percent of 

Latino youth will be arrested—44 percent, most of them for nonviolent offenses. 

We know the sad reality for African-American men, one in three 

African-American males born today can expect to be incarcerated 

at some point unless we make a change. When you hear about police violence, trust me, I was a mayor of a great American city. It 

was challenging and complicated in the constant battle against 

crime to keep my community safe. These are nuanced issues. We 

struggle with them in Newark. 

But we know that right now there are 6.5 million Whites arrested against about 2.6 million African Americans arrested in a 

year. But ProPublica—and that means Blacks and Whites, violent 

crime, nonviolent crime, 6.5 versus 2.6, White to Black. But now 

someone who is African-American, according to data quoted by my 

Republican colleague, Rand Paul, in Time Magazine, are 21 times 

more likely to be shot dead by a police officer—African Americans, 

21 times more likely to be shot dead by a police officer than someone White. 

So I anguish over this fact that my country has been evolving 

through the dedicated determinate acts of Black and White 

through slavery, through Jim Crow, but I find myself a Senator at 

a time that we have this ironic reality, there are more African 

Americans now in prison under criminal supervision, prison, jail, 

probation, parole than all the slaves in 1850. So this is what sears 

into me as a painful reality because we, as a body, Congress has 

the power to change this. 

And the elected leadership is showing this most clearly is not 

coming from the Federal level, it is actually coming from the 

States. Remarkably, refreshingly, it is coming from red States. Red 

State Governors with their legislatures are passing legislation that 

this body should be passing that is showing clearly that you can 

deal with this over-incarceration problem through commonsense bipartisan legislation. 
11 

The one example I will give as I lead to my close is Georgia. Governor Nathan Deal, he has cut spending on prisons, reduced penalties for nonviolent offenses. The result of his commonsense reforms has been a dramatic reduction in prison population and 

guess what—a 20-percent reduction over 5 years in the number of 

incarcerated African-American men in their State, a 20-percent reduction. 

So we can say what we want about the details of Staten Island 

or Ferguson, but there is a larger issue going on that is anguishing 

their heart, from young people working in this institution to cities 

and neighborhoods and towns all over our country. The question is, 

enough of the lamentation, when will there be legislation? 

So I conclude with that call. It is a call that has rang through 

the ages of our Nation, that we have something so precious. This 

week Jews all across our country will be reading a portion of the 

Torah that has a section with these words that are written and inscribed from the Torah on the very site that Martin Luther King 

was killed. 

I had the privilege recently of watching the movie, ‘‘Selma,’’ and 

seeing Blacks and Whites joining hand-in-hand, Latinos and other 

Americans in this ideal of America that these issues are not Black 

or White. They are about justice. They are about America, that people of good conscience when there is clear and patent treatment 

being given to one body of Americans and not to another, that 

there is a call to act. 

It is this idea and this dream and written on that place in Memphis, Tennessee, of the site that one of our great Americans—not 

great Black American—one of our great Americans died, it is the 

words from the Torah that call upon us now. Simply these, ‘‘Here 

cometh the dreamer. Let us slay him and see what becomes of his 

dreams.’’ 

There has been enough death in this country. There has been 

enough over-incarceration. It is time now that we make the dream 

real. We, through our legislative efforts, as illustrated by State 

after State, can now follow suit, reduce our prison populations, 

lower crime, save taxpayers money, and more effectively herald the 

highest ideals of our country. 

Thank you. 

Chairman DURBIN. Thank you, Senator Booker. 

Congressman Luis Gutie ́rrez of Chicago. 

STATEMENT OF HON. LUIS GUTIE ́ RREZ, A REPRESENTATIVE 

IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS 

Representative GUTIE ́ RREZ. Thank you, Chairman Durbin and 

Ranking Member Cruz for inviting me to testify at this hearing regarding the current state of civil and human rights in the United 

States. Thank you, Senator Durbin for advocating for justice and 

equality. 

I have always valued your advice and counsel. Your leadership 

on the Judiciary Committee and as Chairman of the Subcommittee 

has contributed greatly to our Nation and to protecting the civil 

rights of all of us. I came here to say thank you. 

Before I begin, I want to extend my heartfelt condolences to the 

families and friends of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. I think we 
12 

can all agree that the loss of life is a great tragedy. As a parent, 

I especially want to say to the parents that I am so sorry for your 

loss. 

In the wake of the grand jury decisions to not indict the officers 

involved in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, communities throughout the country have taken to the streets to protest. 

Many are deeply dissatisfied with decisions not to prosecute the police officers in Ferguson and Staten Island and transparently examine their actions and the circumstances that led to the deaths 

of two unarmed Black men. 

The protests also expose an equally disturbing issue, that the 

killings of Brown and Garner are not isolated issues. I believe the 

visceral reaction around the country is because these cases represent the countless young men who are treated unjustly by the police and many question their ability to receive justice through the 

current court system. 

These deaths expose gaps in our criminal justice system. In particular, the grand jury process and the inherent conflict and bringing charges against law enforcement. Clearly we have more work 

to do to build trust between communities and law enforcement in 

our system of justice. 

African Americans and Latinos are disproportionately impacted 

by the criminal justice system over all. Racial profiling condoned 

officially or unofficially by some in law enforcement forces Blacks 

and Latinos to contend with the criminal justice system more frequently in a completely different way than many others in our society. Minority communities have a higher prosecution rate and at 

the post-conviction stage, sentencing orders tend to be harsher 

among minority defendants. 

All too often, Latinos and Blacks are victims of excessive use of 

force at the hands of rogue police officers. The issue is only exacerbated when local and State police departments are equipped with 

military equipment, as was the case in Ferguson, Missouri, this 

past summer. 

The cycle continues as we saw just last week when grand juries 

guided by prosecutors who work on a daily basis with the police 

failed to even call for a trial in open court. It is not surprising that 

the system breeds mistrust. This vicious cycle not only affects individuals, but also affects our African-American and Latino communities as a whole. 

When we see children like Michael Brown and Eric Garner and 

Trayvon Martin, we see our own families in our own loved ones. 

Ask any Latino or African-American parent whether they live in a 

suburb or in a housing project and they will tell you they fear for 

their children’s safety every time they leave the house. 

Rather than thinking of the police as a public servant who will 

protect the safety of their children, too often they think of local police as one of the harshest their children have to face. I think only 

of my daughter, Jessica, who was stopped because she was driving 

in too nice of a car. She was with her friends in her own neighborhood. Her mom and dad apparently made the mistake of living in 

a neighborhood they could afford to live in, not one the police officer thought she should be living in. 
13 

Or when I was stopped and refused admission to this very Capitol complex early in my year because as the Capitol Hill police officer said, I did not look like a Congressman. Too many have face 

profiling, subtle and explicit, annoying and yes, potentially dangerous when the profiler has a badge or has a gun. 

I respect and appreciate the hard work that law enforcement officers do to keep our communities safe. We have worked to get more 

cops on the street to invest in violence reduction programs to reduce the number of guns in our communities that often target police officers, and to make sure we honor and pay police officers for 

the dangerous and often thankless work police officers do. 

I am also proud to be an original cosponsor of the End Racial 

Profiling Act which I think is clearly and sorely needed. 

With regard to the revised profiling guidelines issued yesterday 

by the Department of Justice, I am deeply disappointed that they 

did not close significant loopholes, especially as they pertain to the 

Department of Homeland Security which will allow whole sections 

of America’s largest law enforcement entities, including Customs, 

Border Patrol, and Transportation Security Administration, to continue to profile many innocent Americans. I am also perplexed and 

disheartened that the new guidance applies only to Federal agents, 

but exempts local, county, and State law enforcement. 

Civil and human rights today in America continues to be a work 

in process thanks to the leadership of Chairman Durbin and many 

of my colleagues including those seated with me today. We are able 

to celebrate the strides we have made to create a more equal and 

just Nation for all and chart the course of continued progress in the 

future, but it is tempered by knowing that we cannot rest in the 

pursuit of justice and fairness, especially in the face of tragic and 

needless cost of life. 

We have come a long way. Senator Booker is a testament to that. 

My buddy, Keith, is a testament to that. I hope to be a testament 

to that. Let us continue to do the good work. I thank you for your 

wonderful leadership, Senator Durbin. 

Chairman DURBIN. Thanks, Congressman Gutie ́rrez. 

Congressman Ellison of Minnesota. 

STATEMENT OF HON. KEITH ELLISON, A REPRESENTATIVE 

IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MINNESOTA 

Representative ELLISON. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much 

and also thank you to the Ranking Member, also a special thanks 

to my fellow Minnesotans, Senator Klobuchar and Senator 

Franken, and the entire panel. 

Of course, I was very moved by the words of my fellow panelists. 

They were amazing and I want to say ‘‘ditto’’ on everything they 

said. 

Last week, 15-year-old Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein was run over 

by a man in an SUV and the bumper sticker on his car said, ‘‘Islam 

is worse than Ebola.’’ But today I am not here to talk and focus 

on private hate crimes and discrimination, although that deserves 

all of the attention that we can muster. 

Today I would like to talk about the discrimination that happens 

at the hands of state actors. I think we should shine a light on all 

forms of discrimination, but I think that the events that we have 
14 

seen over the last few weeks demonstrate how very important it is 

for the state, and people who act on behalf of the state, to get it 

right. 

People have a legitimate higher expectation of people who operate on behalf of the state. Our Government is a democratic government and it is undergirded by a Constitution and the people have 

every right to believe that the Government is there to protect the 

general welfare. 

And that makes it all the more disappointing when people who 

operate on behalf of the state fail to live up to that expectation. 

People have a right to believe that they will be dealt with justly 

and fairly by the state, but when the state violates people’s rights, 

it is fair for people to wonder who is going to protect my rights if 

the state will not? And that is why people are particularly incensed 

by encounters between citizens and law enforcement. 

People are grateful for law enforcement. We believe in law enforcement. I am grateful for law enforcement and I know people 

who are in law enforcement. Most of them go into it because they 

want to help people, but when they fail and when excessive force 

is employed, it is incredibly disappointing and it shakes people’s 

confidence in what the state is supposed to do for them, which is 

to protect them and promote their welfare. 

You know, the injustices we have seen over the past week is not 

new. It is not the first time the police have been videotaped using 

excessive force. None of us can ever forget Rodney King. It is not 

the first time people have died in police custody and it is not the 

first time that a grand jury has vetoed justice. 

Why are people walking around with their hands up saying, ‘‘I 

cannot breathe’’? Why are people saying, ‘‘Don’t shoot’’? Why are 

they proclaiming these things all over cities in America? It is because of a long train of abuses, not one particular case. People who 

want to argue over the nuance of one recent case in the news or 

another are free to do so, but no one can deny the unmistakable 

pattern between police and community, particularly Black community, and men in the community. 

We could talk about Eric Garner and Michael Brown, but what 

about Tamir Rice, 12 years old? What about Darren Hunt who had 

a toy? What about Rodney King? 

And by the way, not only is this a long train of abuses, it goes 

back further even than the Kerner Commission Report which said 

our Nation is moving toward two societies, one Black, one White, 

separate and unequal. Fifty years ago we were dealing with this 

same issue and it is on us today and we must make a call to action 

to reverse this trend so that every American, all Americans, can 

feel that the Government really is liberty and justice for all. 

So instead of a system of justice that works for some and does 

not work for all, this injustice takes place within a social and economic context. I have to say, that when Officer Wilson confronted 

Michael Brown on Canfield Drive in Ferguson, the interaction did 

not take place in a vacuum. 

Ferguson, Missouri’s unemployment rate is 13 percent, over double the national average. The number of poor people in Ferguson 

doubled over the last 10 years. In 2012, almost all of Ferguson’s 

neighborhoods had a poverty rate of over 20 percent. The fact is if 
15 

we respond by ordering body cameras, ordering police cameras, 

these will be good steps. If we have grand jury reform, if we require that there are preliminary hearings in these officer-involved 

shootings so we can have more transparency, these will all be good 

things, but they will not stop the pattern unless we deal with the 

structural economic abandonment of cities like Ferguson. 

We cannot continue to solve our economic and social problems 

with criminal justice solutions. The fact that our low-income and 

minority communities are over-policed and under-protected is the 

spark, but poverty and economic deprivation is the kindling and 

that is what lights the flame. 

I say ‘‘yes,’’ again, to body cameras and all types of reforms, but 

please let us not forget that investing in infrastructure, education, 

public job programs, and providing for social supports which help 

people stay away from the hardest aspects of an unfair economy, 

are essential. You do not sell ‘‘loosies’’ on the streets of Staten Island if you are making a livable wage. 

We know that we have an inequality problem when the CEO of 

Walmart makes over $12,000 an hour and the average Walmart 

worker makes $8.48. The CEO of McDonald’s makes $9,200 an 

hour and the cashier makes $8.25. So please do not forget that 

dealing with the economic deprivation that kindles these situations 

is incredibly important. It is important in the recent cases. It will 

be important in the future. 

I would now like to turn my attention, just for a moment, to talk 

about the problems that affect the Muslim community in particular. Societal discrimination is real. I have been the direct victim 

of it myself. In my own State only a few days ago, a county party 

chairman called Muslims parasites and said they should be 

fragged. That means to kill them violently. 

A State Senator in Oklahoma said that American Muslims are 

a cancer in our Nation that needs cutting out. So when we arrive 

at how the state deals with this Muslim population, we know that 

we are already dealing with the situation in which so many in the 

law enforcement community see the Muslim community as a security problem, not fully fleshed members of our community here to 

make a contribution. 

So I, too, was disappointed in the guidance that was recently 

issued by the Department of Justice and believed that at no time 

can we have a system of justice in which someone’s race or religion 

or what they are wearing can justify engagement by law enforcement. Law enforcement should engage citizens when there is some 

articulable suspicion that that person might commit a specific 

crime. And that should be the basis of the engagement. 

Until we say that racial profiling, religious profiling, is actually 

bad law enforcement, we will continue to bother people and engage 

people who had nothing to do with any wrongdoing and we will 

miss people who are up to no good and will harm us. 

Again, thank you, all of the Committee Members and my fellow 

panelists for this excellent presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman DURBIN. Congressman Ellison, thank you. Congressman Gutie ́rrez it is great to see you over here again. 

Representative GUTIE ́ RREZ. Thank you. 
16 

Chairman DURBIN. Senator Booker, thanks. We appreciate it as 

your colleagues. I dismiss, with gratitude, our first panel and 

thank them for adding to this. 

I want to acknowledge—in the audience today is Martin Castro, 

Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. It is good to see you 

Marty. 

Now I would like to call the second witness panel to come to the 

table. As they are coming to the table, I will give you an introduction on them. 

One longtime friend, Wade Henderson, president and chief executive officer of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human 

Rights. The Leadership Conference is the Nation’s preeminent civil 

and human rights coalition with more than 200 national organizations in its membership. 

Mr. Henderson, professor at the University of District of Columbia David Clarke School of Law—prior to joining the Leadership 

Conference he was the Washington bureau director of the NAACP, 

graduate of Howard University and Rutgers University School of 

Law. I thank you for being here today. 

Dr. Cedric Alexander currently serves as president of NOBLE, 

the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives 

on whose behalf he is appearing. He is the deputy chief operating 

officer in charge of the Office of Public Safety for DeKalb County, 

Georgia. 

Dr. Alexander previously served as Transportation Security Administration Federal Security Director for Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, deputy commissioner of the Office of Public Safety 

at the New York State Division of Criminal Justice and chief of police in Rochester, New York, law enforcement officer for 15 years 

in Florida, a doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Wright 

State University. Dr. Alexander, thank you. 

Our next witness is a familiar friend, Laura Murphy, director of 

the Washington Legislative Office of the American Civil Liberties 

Union, a position she has held on several occasions. She is the first 

woman, first African American, longest serving head of the Federal 

Affairs Operation in ACLU’s 94-year history. She received her 

Bachelor’s from Wellesley College. 

It is the custom of this Committee to swear in our witnesses. If 

you would all please rise. 

Do you affirm that the testimony you are about to give before the 

Subcommittee be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the 

truth, so help you God? 

Mr. ALEXANDER. I do. 

Mr. HENDERSON. I do. 

Ms. MURPHY. I do. 

Chairman DURBIN. Thank you. Let the record reflect that all 

three witnesses answered in the affirmative. 

Let me first call as the first witness, Wade Henderson. 

STATEMENT OF WADE HENDERSON, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF 

EXECUTIVE OFFICER, THE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE ON 

CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS, WASHINGTON, DC 

Mr. HENDERSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman—Chairman Durbin, 

Ranking Member Cruz, and Members of the Subcommittee. I am 
17 

Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference 

on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 200 national 

organizations representing persons of color, women, children, organized labor, persons with disabilities, seniors, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, and the faith-based community. 

Let me start by thanking you, Senator Durbin, for your remarkable leadership of the Subcommittee. From the passage of bipartisan legislation like the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., 

Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the Fair Sentencing Act, to 

chairing hearings, examining voter rights, Stand Your Ground 

Laws, and the civil rights of American Muslims. You have been a 

champion on issues of vital importance to the civil and human 

rights community for years. 

Let me also acknowledge you, Ranking Member Cruz, in your 

role as the new Chair of the Subcommittee in the 114th Congress. 

Senator, we are hopeful that as the new Chair, you will build on 

the Subcommittee’s legacy and continue to work in a bipartisan 

fashion to make progress for our Nation. We look forward to collaborating with you to achieve our common goal of protecting and 

advancing civil and human rights for all Americans. 

This hearing is taking place at a pivotal time for the Nation. The 

recent killings of unarmed Black boys and men by police officers 

across the country have fueled a growing diverse passionate and increasingly organized movement for justice across racial lines that 

cannot be ignored. 

In particular, the recent non-indictments of the police officers 

who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner 

in Staten Island, New York, and the new information about the 

suitability of Officer Timothy Loehmann who killed 12-year-old 

Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio, remind us that we live in a country 

founded on principles of equality and opportunity, African Americans and other communities of color still find that the promise of 

equality and opportunity has yet to be fully realized. 

On nearly every indicator that we use in the United States to 

measure progress, people of color are falling further behind. And in 

some important ways, doing worse than they were in 1960. Our 

schools have re-segregated. Our levels of unemployment are at an 

all-time high. We face continued discrimination in voting and our 

incarceration rates have increased exponentially. 

So as we mark a number of anniversaries this year and next, including the Civil Rights Act, Freedom Summer, the Voting Rights 

Act, and Bloody Sunday, we must acknowledge and celebrate how 

far we have come. But we must also be aware of just how far we 

have to go in the quest for equality. Systemic obstacles to full inclusion and opportunity remain for our communities and we have 

failed to establish the justice and equality that we all seek. 

Now without question, our criminal justice system is in crisis. 

Racial and ethnic bias and discrimination persists at every stage 

from policing to trial to sentencing and finally to reentry. We 

should use our resources to more adequately address public safety 

and invest in alternatives to incarceration where appropriate. 

And we must put in place commonsense reforms that prohibit 

discriminatory profiling, demilitarize local law enforcement, rede-
18 

fine the standards for use of force by police, and establish accountability. We must eliminate harsh sentencing policies that disproportionately impact communities of color and pass the bipartisan Smarter Sentencing Act as well as assist with successful reentry. Finally, we need vigorous enforcement of hate crime protections and expanded coordinated police community efforts to track 

and respond to hate violence and improve hate crime data collection. 

More than a decade after President Bush announced that racial 

profiling is ‘‘wrong and we will end it in America,’’ communities 

across the country, particularly African Americans, Latinos, Asian 

Americans, Arab and Muslim Americans, and those perceived to be 

Arab and Muslim, including South Asians, Middle Easterners, and 

Sikhs, are still subjected to profiling in a variety of contexts, including street-level enforcement, immigration enforcement, and 

counterterrorism efforts. 

Profiling is an ineffective law enforcement practice. It is detrimental to public safety and is antithetical to the constitutional 

right to equal protection under law. 

Now yesterday the Department of Justice issued long-awaited revisions to its 2003 profiling guidance for Federal law enforcement. 

This represents an important step forward by expanding protected 

categories and limiting some of the existing loopholes. 

Where it falls short in the areas of national security, border integrity, and the failure to apply State and local enforcement, we 

will work with this administration to end profiling by all law enforcement. Further, the shortfalls in the guidance reinforce the 

need for Congress to act and we will redouble our efforts to ensure 

passage of the End Racial Profiling Act in the 114th Congress. 

I would like to turn next to voting rights. While the days of poll 

taxes, literacy tests, and brutal physical intimidation are behind 

us, voting discrimination is still a problem for many Americans. 

Last month’s midterm elections were the first to be held without 

the protection of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act because of the 

Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County versus Holder decision and 

we saw increased efforts to implement the new restrictions on voting, including mandatory voter identification laws, limits on early 

voting, last-minute changes in polling places, changes to methods 

of elections, and racially biased gerrymandering that disproportionately impact communities of color. 

As a result, we witnessed the most unfair, confusing, and discriminatory election landscape in almost 50 years. It is a disgrace 

to our citizens, to our Nation, and to our standing in the world as 

a beacon of democracy. The 114th Congress must fix the Shelby decision by enacting the bipartisan Voting Rights Amendment Act to 

ensure that no voter faces discrimination. 

These are big challenges, Mr. Chairman. The Leadership Conference’s goal is to create an America as good as its ideals. It is not 

just rhetoric. This is the critical and necessary work in which all 

Americans of good conscience should be engaged, particularly our 

elected officials who are charged with addressing problems of national importance. 

We look forward to working with you and the Subcommittee on 

these important issues. Thank you, sir. 
19 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Henderson appears as a submission for the record.] 

Chairman DURBIN. Dr. Alexander. 

STATEMENT OF CEDRIC ALEXANDER, PSY.D., PRESIDENT, 

NATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF BLACK LAW ENFORCEMENT 

EXECUTIVES, AND PUBLIC SAFETY DIRECTOR, DEKALB 

COUNTY, GEORGIA 

Mr. ALEXANDER. Thank you, sir, and good afternoon Chairman 

Durbin and Ranking Member Cruz and Members of the Subcommittee. I bring you greetings on behalf of the executive board 

and members of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, commonly referred to as NOBLE. 

My name is Dr. Cedric Alexander, national president of NOBLE 

and deputy chief operating for public safety, DeKalb County, Georgia. 

It is an honor to be here today to participate as a witness in the 

Senate’s hearing on The State of Civil and Human Rights in the 

United States. I want to acknowledge and thank you, Chairman 

Durbin, for holding this hearing and inviting me to participate. 

I speak to you from a perspective of a person who has over 37 

years of law enforcement experience and who has held a number 

of high-level positions in Federal, county, and city local levels. In 

addition, I hold a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. And quite frankly, 

Senator, some days I do not know whether that is an asset or liability. 

I represent an organization, NOBLE, whose mission is to ensure 

equity in administration of justice and a provision of public service 

to all communities and to serve as the conscience of law enforcement by being committed to justice by action. It is my position that 

this country has the unique opportunity today to address the lack 

of trust and understanding of law enforcement by communities of 

color. It is imperative to every citizen that we collectively deploy 

solutions to the areas of training, community policing, and technology to ensure that America is secure both domestically and 

internationally. 

Second, through the solutions we were able to further the hopes 

and dreams of many of our forefathers and realizing true civil 

rights and human rights as stated in the Declaration of Independence: ‘‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 

unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the 

pursuit of Happiness.’’ 

The recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, and in Staten Island, 

New York, when combined with real and/or perceived attacks on 

civil rights legislation, have created an environment where many 

people of color feel disenfranchised by their national and local government. More importantly, there is a pervasive belief, right or 

wrong, that the lives of minorities are of less value than that of 

their counterparts. 

So with that, let us talk about solutions to building bridges of 

understanding and partnership between enforcement and communities they are to serve and protect. Training, sir, being at the forefront of all of this. Cultural competency is a critical component to 
20 

bridging the gap amongst law enforcement and communities of 

color. It is the foundation for people of different cultures and social 

economic backgrounds to interact effectively. 

When developed and implemented as a framework, cultural competency enables systems, agencies, and groups of professionals to 

function effectively to understand the needs of culturally diverse 

groups. It is critical that law enforcement reevaluates its training 

methodologies to ensure that they reflect the 21st century needs 

and incorporate cultural competency training for police officers— 

that is part of the recruiting and in-service training. 

Militarization of police has become a growing concern and interest throughout our country in recent years through to the use of 

tactical equipment and gear to combat everyday crime. The 1033 

Program was created by the National Defense Authorization Act of 

1997 as part of the U.S. Government’s Defense Logistics Agency 

disposition services to transfer excess military equipment to local 

law enforcement agencies. Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military equipment flows from the Federal Government to State and local police departments. 

As a result, departments have implemented the use of military 

equipment, as seen most recently in Ferguson, Missouri, which to 

many Americans was unfairly targeted toward other American citizens. There must be justification, accountability, and training to 

support the continued use of such tactical measures and equipment. NOBLE feels that training is a key component of ensuring 

the correct application of this type of resource. 

Community-oriented policing, which we all have heard a lot 

about over the years—it is our recommendation that the law enforcement community adopt community policing as a philosophy of 

policing in this country. Here are some of the key components of 

community policing: Community policing allows officers to demonstrate their support for the community; residents and officers are 

allies; officers respect and protect the civil rights of residents; racial profiling and other forms of discrimination are strictly prohibited. 

Community policing demands that officers interact with people 

who live or work in neighborhoods that they patrol. Officers are 

trained to communicate with people, solve community problems, 

and develop an appreciation of cultural and ethnic differences. And 

the other side of that, sir, is very important as well, too, that communities work closely with police, align themselves with their local 

police, and become partners. 

This is not a one-way street. This is a two-way street when we 

talk about public safety. It takes everyone, police and community 

together, in order to provide the type of public safety I think that 

we all want to embrace in our respective communities. 

Community policing emphasizes the importance and the value of 

human life. The use of excessive force is absolutely prohibited and 

deadly force is reserved strictly for when an officer’s life or the life 

of a citizen is at risk. 

NOBLE has launched a pilot program entitled, ‘‘The Law and 

Your Community.’’ Through funding from the Department of Justice COPS Office, this program’s aim is to develop trust and understanding between law enforcement and the community. 
21 

The Law and Your Community is an interactive training program for young people between the ages of 13 and 18 years of age. 

It is designed to improve their communication with law enforcement officers and their understanding of Federal, State, and local 

laws. 

Components of the program include, but are not limited to, citizenship. What does it mean to be a citizen? What are the laws governing everyday life, including traffic laws? And what are your 

rights as a citizen? 

Basic laws—understanding the basic laws of issues such as gun 

ownership, staying safe within your community, and maintaining 

positive affiliations with others including peer relationships, maintaining good grades, adult relationships, and the benefits of having 

mentors. 

Law enforcement engagement—educating young people and 

adults on how to engage and navigate communication with local 

law enforcement officers. What is community policing? Have a better understanding of realities of working in law enforcement and 

working with those who do that job. 

And last, technology—we feel that technology can be leveraged to 

support the effective implementation of community policing and ensure maximum transparency to the public. Through technology, 

partnerships with communities can be strengthened in the area of 

problem-solving and partnership initiatives. 

Likewise, there is an important role in applying technology and 

improving the effectiveness of law enforcement training. Listed are 

some of those technology recommendations: requirements of body 

cameras for every law enforcement officer in this country—every 

law enforcement officer in this country; deployment of various social media platforms to allow law enforcement departments to better communicate and interact with local residents; and, of course, 

use of force and firearm training systems which will help them to 

develop and sharpen their skills of ‘‘shoot’’ and ‘‘don’t shoot.’’ 

By implementing these recommendations on training, community 

policing, and technology, we believe that real progress can be made 

in improving the relationship between law enforcement and the 

communities they serve. This would greatly improve the state of 

civil rights and human rights in America. 

I thank the Subcommittee for the opportunity to testify and 

would be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Thank 

you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Alexander appears as a submission for the record.] 

Chairman DURBIN. Thank you, Dr. Alexander. 

Laura Murphy. 

STATEMENT OF LAURA MURPHY, DIRECTOR, WASHINGTON 

LEGISLATIVE OFFICE, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION, 

WASHINGTON, DC 

Ms. MURPHY. Thank you, Senator Durbin and Ranking Member 

Cruz for inviting the ACLU to testify at today’s hearing. 

For nearly 100 years, the ACLU has worked to defend and preserve the rights that the Constitution and the laws of the United 

States guarantee. I would especially like to thank you, Senator 
22 

Durbin, for your tireless leadership as Chairman. You have held 

hearings on a variety of critical issues from solitary confinement to 

racial profiling and addressing barriers to voting and for that we 

are so very thankful. 

My written testimony provides an extensive and broader view of 

the state of civil and human rights, but today I will focus my remarks on three areas of unfinished business: (1) the militarization 

of police; (2) sentencing reform; and (3) criminal disenfranchisement in voting. 

We are standing at a crossroads in America right now. One must 

only look to the current crisis in Ferguson, in New York City, and 

in Cleveland, to see that extreme problems in policing continue. 

With recent police paramilitary tactics splashed across our TV 

screens, we must ask ourselves, Do we want an America where the 

exercise of First Amendment rights is met by assault weapons and 

teargas, where armored vehicles are used in our day-to-day policing, where policing resembles our military operations in Iraq and 

Afghanistan, where communities of color are disproportionately 

under siege? If the answer to these questions is ‘‘no,’’ Congress 

must act immediately. 

Militarized policing goes far beyond Ferguson. Although SWAT 

teams were originally created to deal with life or death emergencies like hostage crises, they are now overwhelmingly used to 

serve search warrants in drug investigations. A recent ACLU report found that SWAT teams were used 79 percent of the time for 

raiding a person’s home, most often for drugs. 

Such tactics are unnecessary and excessive. What message are 

we sending by using weapons of war to police American communities? 

Congress must ensure accountability. Federal funding and providing military equipment should be conditioned on data collection, 

use of body-worn cameras, anti-racial profiling training, and insistence on community policing, as my good friend has pointed out. 

The war on drugs has created an incarceration nation with too 

many people in prison for too long, serving no useful benefit to society. One of the major reasons for expanded jail and prison populations over the past 30 years is the use of stiff mandatory minimum sentencing for nonviolent offenses. 

Prison costs now absorb nearly a third of DOJ’s discretionary 

budget, 30 percent. The cost, though, goes far beyond simply the 

money it takes to incarcerate over 2.3 million people. The true cost 

are human lives, mainly of generations of young Black and Latino 

men and women who serve long prison sentences and are lost to 

their families and communities. 

Organizations across the political spectrum support truly bipartisan sentencing reform such as the Smarter Sentencing Act and 

we thank you for that. That act would address the ongoing crisis 

in our Federal prisons by reducing the prison population. The SSA 

is sponsored by Senators Durbin, Lee, Leahy, Cruz, and Representatives Bobby Scott and Rau ́l Labrador. 

The bill also has considerable conservative support. The time is 

now to pass the Smarter Sentencing Act. It is only a first step in 

reducing over-incarceration. 
23 

There is another tragic outcome of our Nation’s incarceration 

binge. Almost 6 million of our citizens have lost the right to vote 

because of a past criminal conviction, and many instances, very 

low-level crimes. Upon release from prison, these citizens work, 

they pay taxes, they live in our communities, and they raise families, but millions cannot vote. 

One out of every 13 African Americans of voting age has lost the 

right to vote. That is four times the national average, but millions 

have no input on our political process. That is unacceptable. 

We commend Senators Ben Cardin and Rand Paul for their leadership in this area and we urge the passage of the Democracy Restoration Act, a bill that would restore voting rights in Federal elections to millions of citizens. 

Ending discrimination should be and historically has been a bipartisan issue. Just consider the multiple Voting Rights Act extensions that we have had. Consider the laudatory Fair Sentencing 

Act of 2010. These would not have happened without bipartisan 

support. Only with bipartisan support can we make much-needed 

changes to our criminal justice policies. 

I am sorry Senator Cruz had to leave because we would like to 

work with him as well on changing our criminal justice policies. We 

look forward to working with him as the new Chair and all Members of the Subcommittee in the 114th Congress on these critical 

issues. 

I want to thank you so much for this opportunity to testify and 

before I end, I would ask special consideration before the hearing 

record is closed, I would like to ask if the ACLU may submit a document outlining some of the gender-related problems in our criminal justice system. 

Chairman DURBIN. Without objection. 

[The information appears as a submission for the record.] 

Ms. MURPHY. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Murphy appears as a submission 

for the record.] 

Chairman DURBIN. Thank you, Ms. Murphy. 

Mr. Henderson, there was a time when witnesses came before 

this Subcommittee and told us about what had happened when we 

had the 100–to–1 disparity between crack and powdered cocaine. 

Over a span of 20 years or more, there was a massive incarceration 

of African Americans, unjustly, unfairly, for undue long periods of 

time, but there was another reaction, the African-American community understood it and as a consequence, when many of the 

same people were called to serve on juries to try people for drug 

crimes, they remembered and it became increasingly difficult for 

prosecutors in some areas to win a prosecution before a jury that 

was integrated. 

They told us that story and it was understandable. Let me take 

that to what I think we currently face, at least in some communities that I am aware of. We have seen a decline in violent crime 

in the city of Chicago, but still too many violent crimes. 

The overwhelming majority are Black-on-Black crimes. When you 

visit the communities that are the most dangerous, where the children are in the most danger going back and forth to school, even 

playing, sitting on a porch, you find a reaction from people in the 
24 

community that they do not reach out to the police, they do not cooperate with the police, they fear the drug gangs and those who 

own the guns, but they fear reaching out to the police is going to 

be just as dangerous or unproductive. 

Two areas of nullification, but one that has a direct negative impact on the people living there. Tell me how you react to that. 

Mr. HENDERSON. Well, Mr. Chairman, it is a terrific question 

and I think you have correctly pointed out some of the challenges 

that law enforcement and the communities that they are paid to 

protect often encounter in their relationship with one another. The 

relationship between law enforcement and the African-American 

community, as Senator Booker helped lay out in his presentation, 

has a long history based on fundamental injustices that our country has yet to fully overcome. 

And you correctly point out that, obviously, communities experiencing crime regardless of the makeup in color of that community 

needs the protection that law enforcement provides. On the other 

hand, when law enforcement is applied inconsistently, unfairly, 

without equal protection and often without respect for the lives of 

the individuals that law enforcement is charged to protect, you develop a level of ambivalence, indeed a level of fear, that may affect 

how you respond to the legitimate needs of law enforcement in the 

engagement with the communities they serve. 

Now, let me say at the outset, this is not a generalized indictment of law enforcement. We know many police officers. We work 

with police officers and many police officers are fully committed to 

protecting their charges regardless of the race of the communities 

they prosecute. Having said that, there are identifiable problems, 

some of which have surfaced in the last several weeks, in the cases 

that we have cited which clearly point out the need for further 

training and responsibility to ensure that these individuals are protected. 

One of the concerns that we expressed with the guidance issued 

by the Department of Justice is that it did not go far enough to require State and local police officers not engaged in direct Federal 

law enforcement activity, which is covered by the guidance, but law 

enforcement that relies on Federal support, Federal dollars, Federal equipment, that these departments should be required to attest to under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits racial and ethnic and national origin discrimination. These 

departments should attest to the fact that they have training programs designed to ensure that racial profiling or profiling of the 

kind that we have discussed that should be prohibited does not 

take effect. The problems of unconscious bias which often affect police departments can be overcome with training, that attestations 

of the fact that these departments have taken affirmative steps are 

needed. 

Now to get back to your specific question about the communities 

that, in turn, are experiencing crime and are fearful about reporting those crimes to the police, representing another form of nullification, I guess I would say, Senator, the truth is, most crime occurs in this country in communities in which inhabitants reside. So 

yes, there is Black-on-Black crime just as there is White-on-White 
25 

crime. The communities and the makeup of the community often 

determines that. 

Having said that, there is a legitimate concern on the part of 

many communities that reporting crime, as much as they would 

like to have the protection of the police officers, often invites a level 

of systemic abuse which they had seen in the implementation of 

our criminal laws and the unfairness of it all. 

So when we talk about incarcerating individuals for years at a 

time for nonviolent, drug-related criminal activity and yet we turn 

to look at legal use of the same product in States like Colorado that 

had individuals incarcerated for long periods of time, whether it is 

in Illinois or Minnesota or other locations, there is obviously some 

sense of unfairness and injustice. We need to try to reconcile that. 

One last point, your effort on the Fair Sentencing Act, we have 

talked about it here, but the truth is, had you not shown the kind 

of leadership that you demonstrated, your willingness to reach out 

to Senator Sessions, your willingness to cut a deal and we talked 

with you at that time, we obviously were pleased that the 100–to– 

1 disparity was being changed. We had hoped that the disparity 

would have been eliminated entirely, that there would have been 

a 1-to-1 ratio of incarceration based on crack or powder cocaine. 

Nonetheless, the change that the two of you helped usher in and 

was approved by the Senate, has led to a substantial reduction in 

prison time for individuals who would have been adversely affected 

on an average of about 3 years. 

The cost factors involved in the incarceration of these individuals 

and the impact that returning to their communities at an earlier 

point in time has had on the overall nature of the community is 

beyond price. You should be very proud of what you have been able 

to accomplish. 

Chairman DURBIN. Thank you very much, Mr. Henderson. 

Senator Franken. 

Senator FRANKEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Boy, there is so 

much here. This is a moment, I think, in this country that our first 

witnesses and all of you have talked about how Ferguson, Staten 

Island, Cleveland are not anomalies, but there is a focus now in 

this country. And this is a moment and it is a moment that I think 

we really need to, at least, at the very least, try to grapple with 

this, try to focus on it and try to legislate. 

I heard from a friend whom I had not heard from in 20 years 

after Senator Booker spoke—and you heard how powerfully he 

spoke today. He spoke at our caucus lunch and that same evening 

I got an email from a friend I had not seen in 20 years who said 

you have to do something about this. I have conversations with my 

15-year-old son that are very uncomfortable, just like Senator 

Booker talked about, what it is like for a young African-American 

male, that there is no margin for error in dealing with law enforcement. 

I want to ask you, Dr. Alexander, you talked about community 

policing and it sounds to me that, like what you were saying, Mr. 

Henderson, I believe, was that when there is not Federal crime involved there is still Federal funding involved. Can we require some 

kind of protocol in community policing? 
26 

Let me ask you something because this is the difference between 

Ferguson and Staten Island, I think. At Ferguson, the police department really did not represent the community in its makeup. I 

think in New York it does more. And this is for anyone on the 

panel, but maybe Dr. Alexander first, what does that say about 

training versus, or in league with, having the police department 

represent the community? 

Mr. ALEXANDER. Well, it is important, Senator. As we all know, 

diversity is a very important concept I think we all tend to pay 

very close attention to and one, in this Nation, that I would hope 

whether it is Government or private industry, we all make an attempt to rectify, particularly when we see agencies as such that 

may be lacking in that area. 

Diversity is hugely important. There are many departments 

across this country who are doing it very well every day and there 

are some communities in this country, Senator, that struggle with 

the whole concept of diversity. Some of it may be deliberate, where 

they do not take it that seriously. In some cases, you will have a 

community such as Ferguson where I had the opportunity to spend 

some time with the chief there on a number of occasions and we 

talked about diversification in his department and will use Ferguson as an example. 

That is a community where the demographics in that city 

changed from White to Black over about a 20-year span. I mean, 

changed hugely. In that transition, the department, the police department itself, did not transition to look more like their community. Now, in all fairness to Chief Jackson, he made attempts as 

he stated to me, to diversify that department. 

One of the biggest challenges that he had inasmuch as he wanted to make that department more representative of that community, he struggled with the fact that the same population that he 

was trying to recruit, every other police department in his area was 

trying to recruit as well, too. 

For example, St. Louis PD, St. Louis County Police Department. 

A lot of these officers of color tend to go to larger agencies where 

they are paid more money and more opportunity for advancements. 

And then you also had him and others competing for that same 

population, as well, even in private industry. 

But one thing that I concluded and I made very clear to him, and 

I talked to a number of my chief and police and administrative colleagues across this country, regardless of what that challenge may 

be to you, we can no longer accept the fact we cannot find any. 

That is no longer acceptable. 

What it means, Senator, is that departments that struggle with 

recruitment of people of color, they are going to have to work harder. They are going to have to put money in their budgets. They are 

going to have to go outside their communities to recruit and they 

may even have to develop within their communities, within their 

local public schools, pipelines where children and young people can 

become police explorers, and you begin to groom those young people 

from very early on in their educational process so that maybe at 

some point they become a pipeline into your police agency. 

It is a challenge in some parts of the country. Where I come 

from, in DeKalb County, Georgia, metro Atlanta, I do not have a 
27 

problem recruiting people of color. I do not have that issue, but 

here again, it depends on where you are. But one thing I will not 

accept is the fact that I cannot find people of color. It just means 

we have to become more creative and we have to become more determined and we have to look around as well, too, and see how 

other departments or other industries are recruiting, because we 

may not have to re-create that wheel. 

But accepting the fact that we cannot find people of color is not 

acceptable because a community deserves to look like the government that serves it, whatever that government is that serves that 

community, there should be some similarities there as well, too. 

But I can say this, there are a number of departments out there 

across this country, police departments across this country, who 

really make dedicated efforts, who really work hard to diversify 

their agency not only at the lower ranks, but all the way up to the 

top and we have to applaud those. 

But there are agencies out there as well, too, that struggle. Some 

struggle because they do not have any control over that and others 

struggle maybe because they do not see the benefit in it and we 

have to hold those agencies, whoever they are out there, we have 

to hold them accountable. 

Ms. MURPHY. I would ask that these Senators and Members of 

Congress be creative in attaching conditions to Federal funds to 

local police departments. We had the Hyde Amendment many 

years ago which is still in force. It said no Federal funds shall be 

used for abortion. 

Why are Federal funds being used for racial profiling? That is, 

in fact, what is happening now. We believe the President has the 

authority under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to require local police departments receiving Federal funds not to discriminate. And 

there is a debate in the Justice Department. So many people in the 

Justice Department said we cannot have any jurisdiction over local 

police, but millions of dollars flow into over 85 percent of local police departments and I think this should be an amendment strategy or a conversation with the President, but it is important for 

Congress to act because what is going on in communities of color 

is just so horrible when it comes to community and police relations. 

Something has to be done. 

And I just want to say that Attorney General Eric Holder, I 

think, gets this. His staff is working on Byrne JAG grants and that 

flows a lot of money into police departments. 

They say that Congress has a great deal of authority over those 

programs. So I would ask Members of this Committee to look at 

the COPS Program, to look at Byrne JAG grants and to see what 

restrictions can be enacted so that Federal funds are not used in 

a discriminatory fashion. 

Mr. HENDERSON. Senator Franken, could I just add one point to 

your last question? 

Senator FRANKEN. Sure. 

Mr. HENDERSON. Thank you. You touched on the non-indictment 

of Eric Garner and New York and you talked about the police department being more representative of the community. Indeed, it 

is. 
28 

Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman of New York 

issued a request to Governor Cuomo—which we supported, by the 

way—asking that in instances where police shootings involving civilians occurred, that a special prosecutor be appointed to conduct 

the inquiry and to handle the indictment process. We believe that 

that is necessary. 

Police departments have an inherent conflict of interest with 

local prosecutors. That is not to say that they have teamed up to 

avoid the indictment of police officers. It is to say that the special 

relationship that prosecutors enjoy with police, after all, they depend upon police to provide information and often testimony in 

cases that they handle. You cannot handle a police shooting of a 

civilian in an impartial way without bringing in a prosecutor from 

the outside. 

So when we look at the situation in Staten Island, when we look 

at the situation in Ferguson—in the Ferguson circumstance, the 

outcome was virtually foretold at the moment that the prosecutor 

elected not to recuse himself over the request of local individuals 

and his record suggested that this outcome was predictable. It is 

not that way in every circumstance, but certainly it is enough of 

a concern that the approach that Attorney General Schneiderman 

took is one that we would recommend broadly. 

Senator FRANKEN. Thank you—thank you all. 

Chairman DURBIN. Thank you, Senator Franken. 

Senator Blumenthal. 

Senator BLUMENTHAL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you 

for convening this hearing. Thank you to each of you for being here 

and for your extraordinary work over many, many years. I want to 

just go from the last remark that you made, Mr. Henderson, because I think that the lack of indictment in the Garner case has 

certainly shocked and appalled countless people and led to the kind 

of suggestions that State Attorney General Schneiderman made. I 

am not sure that the Federal Government would have authority to 

require a special State prosecutor to prosecute a local or State policeman, but I think the suggestion certainly is one that has attracted a lot of support and understandably and rightly so. 

I appreciate all of you raising the sentencing issue. I am a cosponsor of the Smarter Sentencing Act that was introduced by our 

Chairman, Senator Durbin, and Senator Lee, and I know as a 

former prosecutor how important discretion is and how restricting 

discretion, most particularly in sentencing, can impede justice and 

fairness and also be against the interest of society. 

I also have called for a stronger oversight as the use of military 

equipment—right now, as you probably know, there really is no, in 

effect, collection of data as to what is dispensed by the Department 

of Justice, where it goes, what it is used for. There is essentially 

no accountability by either the Department of Defense or the Department of Justice and I think one or the other has to impose 

some accountability. 

I want to say, in preface to the question I am going to ask, that 

I have great respect for police and prosecutors around the country. 

I have worked in law enforcement for the better part of 40 years, 

beginning in 1977 as the U.S. Attorney in Connecticut and then as 

a State Attorney General. 
29 

I think there has been tremendous progress in the quality of our 

policing community at State, local, and Federal levels in the quality of training, the quality of people and practices and even diversity over these years which in no way minimizes the progress that 

we still have to make. I respect the jobs they have to do, day-in 

and day-out, facing extraordinary dangers and life-and-death decisions that have to be made sometimes instantaneously. 

But I do think that we all benefit by better information and right 

now I think a lot of folks have come to realize that there is essentially no information about the deaths that occur while individuals 

are in custody or under arrest. I have introduced legislation in the 

Senate called the Death In Custody Reporting Act. It is a companion bill to Representative Bobby Scott’s bill which passed the 

House by a voice vote—a voice vote and passed this Committee earlier this year. 

It is a pretty simple piece of legislation. It requires States to report how many individuals die each year while they are in custody 

or during the course of an arrest. The stark staggering fact is we 

do not know. And I am going to ask that two recent articles be entered into the record. One is from The Washington Post, of September 8, and it is entitled, ‘‘How Many Police Shootings A Year? 

No One Knows.’’ The second comes from the Wall Street Journal, 

of December 3, and it is entitled, ‘‘Hundreds of Police Killings Are 

Uncounted in Federal Stats.’’ 

The Washington Post article essentially says that we know that 

there are a lot of police shootings, but they are all self-reported. 

There is no requirement that they be reported. And, again, that is 

in no way to indicate disrespect for the decisions that are made in 

those individual instances by 17,000 law enforcement agencies, but 

the fact is only 750 of them report shootings. 

We know the number of police that were shot. We know a vast 

variety of statistics about what is happening on farms, in cities, but 

we do not know the number of people including justifiable homicides as they are called that happen on our streets and in our police department. So I hope that—and by the way, Mr. Chairman, 

I would like for these to be entered into the record if there is no 

objection. 

Chairman DURBIN. So ordered. 

[The information appears as submissions for the record.] 

Senator BLUMENTHAL. I hope that you will indicate your support 

for this legislation. I think it would be meaningful to have your 

opinion and would ask you simply whether you feel this kind of legislation would make sense. 

Mr. ALEXANDER. Would you mind if I start, sir? 

Senator BLUMENTHAL. Mr. Alexander, I am happy to have you 

start. I would ask, Mr. Chairman, that each of the other witnesses 

be given an opportunity to respond as well. 

Mr. ALEXANDER. Yes, sir. I am in total support of that. Part of 

what we are experiencing across this country right now is a failure 

by many Americans, not just African Americans, but Americans 

across this country feel a total disconnect from the criminal justice 

system. In light of the Michael Brown shooting, Eric Garner case, 

it has become more pronounced. I think people who are not African 

American, people who did not have that experience, being African 
30 

American or of color in this country, are beginning to see clearly 

that something is wrong in our criminal justice system, not just police, but our entire criminal justice system across the board 360 degrees. 

In regards to what you are speaking to sir, I find it unfortunate 

and embarrassing, as a law enforcement official, that there is not 

any Federal legislation that requires that cities, States, travel communities, villages all across this great Nation are not reporting 

those types of shootings and deaths to a Federal authority because 

they need to be reported, they need to be investigated, they need 

to be studied scientifically and develop some evidence-based material that might be helpful in identifying a trend in which right now 

we are just all kind of anecdotally looking at. 

So I certainly support that as the president of NOBLE and I 

would hope that the rest of this country would support it as well, 

too, because as a sophisticated country as we are, and the leaders 

of the world, we have a responsibility in this Nation where we have 

the people who are now protesting in the streets from Berkeley to 

Maine and from South Florida to Detroit, all across this Nation 

and around the world. We need to take more accountability. 

We need to begin to close some of those gaps and expose ourselves and become much more transparent to the American people 

in terms of the criminal justice system and how we do business because that is the biggest piece that angers people in Ferguson, and 

Staten Island, and the rest of this Nation. There is absolutely no 

sense of transparency. There is a loss of trust and commitment not 

just from police, but from the entire criminal justice community, 

and we are a better Nation than that and we have to move toward 

some real reform, sir. 

Senator BLUMENTHAL. Very well said. 

Mr. ALEXANDER. Thank you. 

Senator BLUMENTHAL. Ms. Murphy? 

Ms. MURPHY. Yes. We support the Death in Custody Act and we 

hope that the Senate can take it up before the end of the lameduck session. But, you know, data collection is key. We were making momentum in Congress after the Rodney King shooting. 

First, the ACLU helped write the Traffic Stop Statistics Act because we had documented in a report that we call, ‘‘Driving While 

Black,’’ how many times Black motorists were pulled over by State 

and Federal police. There was no data there, but then the problem 

expanded to stop and frisk and street interactions and we did not 

have data there. So we worked on the End Racial Profiling Act 

which would require data collection as a key element. And we 

think without the data, it is hard to make real reform because we 

need to know where the problem is, how long it has been going on, 

which departments are having the most difficult encounters, and 

the fact that this information is not collected by the Federal Government is just a travesty. 

So data collection is crucial to any kind of criminal justice reform, especially getting to the issue of racial profiling. 

Mr. HENDERSON. Senator, my colleagues have elaborated quite 

clearly on the value of the Death In Custody Act. The Leadership 

Conference is a big supporter of the bill. Like Ms. Murphy, we are 

hopeful that the Senate will act on this initiative before it adjourns 
31 

sini die. That gives us just a few days, but it is such a basic fundamental piece of legislation. 

The data collection is essential and that is all the bill would do. 

So for that reason, we hope that I can get the kind of bipartisan 

support here that it was able to obtain in the House and we hope 

the bill becomes law. 

Senator BLUMENTHAL. Thank you—thank you all. 

Chairman DURBIN. Senator Coons. 

Senator COONS. Thank you Senator Durbin—thank you Chairman Durbin for convening this hearing today. I would like to thank 

the panel for your compelling testimony and for your answers to 

the many questions posed here. 

Like my colleagues, and certainly the leadership of Senator Durbin has been outstanding on this, I am a cosponsor and a supporter 

of the Smarter Sentencing Act that he and Senator Lee have advanced of the Death In Custody Reporting bill that was just discussed by Senator Blumenthal. So let me—rather than repeating a 

lot of topics that have already been covered—simply ask for your 

input on two different questions that are related. 

First, I, too, find it shocking we do not have reliable statistics. 

I, like many of my colleagues, worked closely with and respect law 

enforcement and the difficult and dangerous jobs that they do, but 

for us to simply have no data, no meaningful data on deaths in law 

enforcement incidents, to me is deeply puzzling, frustrating, concerning, and something we need to step forward and take some responsibility for and act to address. 

First, why do so many departments refuse to collect and report 

reliable statistics and why can we not get stronger bipartisan action on that first? Second, we have an undeniably unequaled impact on communities of color in this country from our criminal justice system. Just in my home State of Delaware, which is roughly 

22 percent African-American, 42 percent of arrests, 64 percent of 

the prison population, 86 percent of those who are arrested for 

drug use. There is an undeniably disparate impact on communities 

of color and there are several different ways that we could also 

have broken that out. 

The costs, both the lifetime costs, the moral cost, the fiscal costs 

on African-American men in particular, as my colleague, Senator 

Booker detailed earlier, is overwhelming. I choose to be encouraged 

that there are bipartisan bills that I hope this Congress will consider and take up now and in the next Congress. But what can we 

do to reduce and eliminate the unfair toll that our criminal justice 

system takes on minority communities? And I would be grateful if 

the panel will answer each of those two questions to the extent you 

feel inclined, in the time we have remaining. Thank you. 

Mr. HENDERSON. I will start, Senator Coons, and I will be very 

brief. First, again, I want to reiterate a point that both I and Laura 

Murphy have made about using Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to 

condition the receipt of Federal funds on a commitment of nondiscrimination and providing the affirmative training necessary to 

ensure that that commitment can be carried out. 

I believe—I think many of us believe that the departments that 

receive Federal funds, over 85 percent of the police departments in 

the country today, do not begin with an affirmative decision to dis-
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criminate against their citizens. These are police departments with 

officers that are committed to fair treatment, I think, for all. 

Having said that, however, there are certain systemic factors 

that enter into the equation that make the kind of biased policing 

that we have seen almost inevitable. Stereotypes, misperceptions 

about activity, the assumption that one community is more dependent on drug use than another when in fact the statistics would suggest almost equanimity in the way in which drugs are used. All of 

those are factors. 

So data collection is important. Training is important and encouraging affirmative behavior by using a statute that is over 50 

years old, in our view, makes common sense and we hope that that 

can be encouraged. 

I would make one other point. The Smarter Sentencing Act is an 

incredibly valuable tool and it is often framed in moral terms as 

a way of addressing this disparity that exists in sentencing and, indeed, it is a moral issue. 

But there is another very practical factor that makes this such 

an important initiative. The Department of Justice will tell you 

that the Bureau of Prisons, which it administers, is currently eating up about 40 percent of the Department’s budget with that number growing annually because of the mass incarceration that our 

Government supports. 

The growth of the Federal budget, the Department of Justice 

budget and being consumed by the Bureau of Prisons means that 

other discretionary programs that are so important to the communities in which our Federal officers are deployed cannot be administered effectively with that rate of growth in the Bureau of Prisons. And we are hoping that those statistics will help encourage 

Members to look at this. 

And then last, the President has initiated, as you know, a program called My Brother’s Keeper. It has spawned a private initiative called the Boys and Men of Color Initiative. When it was initially proposed, there were some who seemed skeptical about the 

value of that program. 

However, looking at the events of recent weeks and months with 

the killing of young boys and men by police officers and the attendant economic circumstances that feed into that problem, one would 

hope that the President’s initiative would get a second look and a 

measure of support and that goes beyond the enforcement of existing Federal laws and using the good offices of the President and 

Members of Congress to encourage private engagement in these activities as well. 

Senator COONS. Thank you, Mr. Henderson. 

Dr. Alexander? 

Mr. ALEXANDER. Yes, Senator, I think it becomes important to 

note, unfortunately, sometimes cities and States are not going to 

take the responsibility to collect data. And it becomes, for me, I 

think, at that point, a Federal issue where legislation needs to be 

imposed so that we can begin to direct communities to impart with 

all of us publicly and privately any information, particularly 

around in custody deaths. I would even go beyond that and say severe injuries as well, too, because if there are re-occurrences or if 
33 

there is a threshold that is met that brings about a certain amount 

of pause. 

I think that gives an opportunity for all of us to begin to look 

at those agencies. Sometimes it may not be without ill intent. It 

may just be because of poor training or a lack of internal policies 

that dictates that certain procedures need to take place. 

Oftentimes, what I found over the years, and I have been in this 

business a very long time now, is that many of our police officers 

out there who were doing this job every day across this country are 

doing a great job. That is the greatest majority of them. And sometimes along the way, being that policing is not an exact science, 

sometimes they get it wrong, not intentionally, but sometimes they 

do. 

But the difference is this, though, it is life-and-death and when 

death is experienced, then it comes to light and then people start 

asking questions across this country and in those communities and 

oftentimes there are no answers. That is one of the biggest problems that is happening today. There are no answers. There is a 

feeling of no transparency whatsoever. And where truth is not seen 

or experienced or felt by people emotionally, what we end up with 

is just what we are experiencing today. 

The questions you are asking, Senator, are really age-old questions and questions we have talked about and danced around before, but we have never drawn any conclusion to. 

We are at a place now, in this Nation’s history, that we are going 

to have to begin to answer these questions. We are going to have 

to explore, Mr. Chairman, reasons and ways in which we are going 

to change and look at this criminal justice system in a very different kind of way because it is not the same for all people. 

Sometimes it is based on race. Sometimes it is based on gender. 

Sometimes it is based on what your economic class may happen to 

be or all of the above plus some more. But we have got to change 

this because this is just not a—what we are experiencing every 

night in this country now is no longer just a fashionable thing, if 

you will. 

It is not just a reaction. We are seeing what is evolving into a 

movement. It is like we saw the civil rights movement in the 

1960s. It is evolving into a movement because all people across this 

Nation—if you look at Berkeley, California, you look at the demographics of that community both economically and race, thousands 

of people who are marching out there every night and some will 

say that that group is also made up of anarchists, and it may be, 

but I can pretty much assure you as well to that a great number 

of people that are marching across this country every night are just 

American citizens who are saying we want to see something different. We need—our whole criminal justice system needs to be explored and possibly revamped. 

Now that is a heavy lift. We understand that, but what we have 

to do right now and ginger in the rest of this country, is a sense 

of hope that someone is looking at this, someone is paying attention, someone is hearing them and something different is going to 

happen because the American people in my estimation are just not 

going to accept this is just being another incident because they had 

been too frequent and they had been—I should have you look at 
34 

the overall incidence in each one of these cases, what you will constantly find is young African Americans confronting police officers 

who are oftentimes very different from them in race and in economic status, there is a disconnect in this country, not just in policing but there is a disconnect across the whole criminal justice system. 

Even the grand jury process needs to be explored because when 

you have communities in this Nation who no longer trust law enforcement, when you have people in this Nation who tell their children that they should be afraid of the police and they are afraid 

for their children to go outside because they may be harmed by the 

police, that is a bad place that we are at in this country and we 

need to acknowledge it and we need to begin to do something about 

it. 

But I have to be perfectly honest with you, I am tired of people 

talking to me about it. We truly have to figure out some strategies, 

some new strategies and maybe do some things in this country we 

have never tried before, but we have got to take some risk to do 

something very different than just the same rhetoric that we can 

constantly give back to people of this country because they are not 

accepting it any longer and I am not going to give it to them any 

longer. 

Back in my community, my whole idea is to help create some 

strategies, some change so that community and police and the 

criminal justice system work well together. A safer community, a 

safer America. This is not a separated States of America. This is 

a United States of America and part of our whole criminal justice 

system is based on the fact of equality for everyone and when we 

can reach that goal—and it may not become attainable in my lifetime, but we have to get on that trajectory and we have got to find 

a way to get there. I am willing to do whatever it takes to get there 

and I think we all are, but it is something that has to be addressed 

today, sir. Thank you for the question. 

Senator COONS. Thank you, Dr. Alexander. 

Ms. Murphy? 

Ms. MURPHY. Yes. It is always interesting being the only woman 

at a hearing. We represent 50 percent of the population, but we 

have to be feisty in order to be heard. So I appreciate my male colleagues but I think there are a number of questions that I would 

like to address and if I am not able to address them in the oral 

part of the hearing, I would like to be able to submit answers to 

you for the record. 

But I think your specific question about why we cannot get to 

data collection goes back to the Fraternal Order of Police. They oppose the Traffic Stop Statistics Act, they oppose the End Racial 

Profiling Act. 

What we need is a convening of police unions and civil rights 

leaders, maybe at the initiation of you, Senator Coons, or you, Senator Durbin, because they feel—and members of the FOP have told 

me that if data is collected, it will be used to punish them. 

We are not out to punish the police. We are out to end discrimination. And I think the police have to be brought into these discussions and the unions have to be brought into these discussions because they are the people who many Members of Congress rely on 
35 

for political endorsements. So they have a greater power in some 

cases than many of our organizations that do not have political action committees. 

I still think that there is this lingering fear that many elected 

officials have of looking soft on crime. So we have not policed the 

police as vigorously as we could or should. 

I think now is a moment. We have got to use this moment. If it 

does not happen now, it is not going to happen. 

Senator COONS. Well, thank you, Ms. Murphy. Thank you, Mr. 

Chairman, for indulging a full answer to my questions by the 

whole panel of witnesses. It is, to summarize, my hope to that in 

a period when a lack of answers, a lack of transparency, a lack of 

accountability has led many to protest, not just the perception but 

the reality of a disconnection between our communities and those 

charged with the important duty of keeping us safe but doing so 

within our constitutional order, it is my real hope that we will take 

action—an action that leads to change, that leads to hope. 

But I am clear that without this sort of action that you, Mr. 

Chairman, have led in leading this bipartisan bill, we will not 

make progress. So thank you for your leadership in convening this 

hearing, and for everything you are doing and we hope to do together ahead. Thank you. 

Chairman DURBIN. Thanks, Senator Coons. I would like to do 

maybe one or two follow-up questions. 

Ms. Murphy, when I first saw that armored personnel carrier in 

Ferguson, Missouri, I thought, what in the world is going on here? 

I did not know police departments had that kind of equipment. I 

assumed, maybe the most elite biggest city, terrorist threat type of 

situation, but Ferguson, Missouri? 

And it crossed my mind, several questions, what in the world are 

they doing parading that out at what appeared to be, at the moment, a much different kind of street demonstration? Second, what 

are we doing as a Federal Government peddling this kind of hardware? Third, is this just a product of some swaggering, chestthumping chief of police and procurement officer that want to have 

the newest and biggest and toughest looking vehicles? 

But then another question kind of came to me. Do we not live 

in a country where people are fighting for the right of individual 

citizens to own military assault weapons? And are we not asking 

these police to keep communities safe where those citizens might 

live? 

It seems to me that there is an interesting conversation that 

needs to take place here. I do not want to see armored personnel 

carriers in every police department in my State, by any means. But 

I also want to be cognizant of the fact that our police are facing 

weaponry that we are blessing here, at some levels—and you have 

even heard it here today in this Committee—that go way beyond 

the threats that policemen historically faced. I want to be sensitive 

to that. So how do you respond? 

Ms. MURPHY. I want to be sensitive to that, too. But, if you look 

at the usage of these armored vehicles, these helicopters, these bazookas, these M–16s, they are used for routine law enforcement. 

Chairman DURBIN. Which makes no sense. 
36 

Ms. MURPHY. Which makes absolutely no sense. Now, if they 

were used to fight terrorism or armed robbery, bank robberies, or 

hostage situations, then it makes more sense. And it is so racially 

biased the way this equipment is being used. 

When there is a hostage crisis in the White community, you will 

see the armored vehicles. But when there is a routine protest or 

drug arrests in the Black community, you will see these vehicles 

and more. 

Plus, we are rewarding people like Sheriff Arpaio who has a 

boatload of weaponry that he claims he needs in order to enforce 

our immigration laws. 

Chairman DURBIN. Let us let the police organization respond. 

Mr. ALEXANDER. Thank you, Chairman. I certainly do appreciate 

what my colleague, Ms. Murphy, is saying and I certainly do understand her perception and am quite sure in conversations that 

she has had with many citizens in her community across the country. 

Let me say this as a 37-year veteran in policing where I have 

spent all of my career, from Miami, Florida, to Orlando to New 

York and now DeKalb County, Georgia. 

The 1033 Program, I think one of the failures of the program, sir, 

is quite frankly this. You just cannot give out this equipment to 

anyone who wants it. 

In Ferguson, Missouri, that equipment did not belong to the Ferguson Police Department. That equipment belonged, if I am not 

mistaken, to St. Louis County Police Department or the State Police. Now, some of that equipment, maybe all of it, I cannot say 

specifically, may have been acquired through the 1033 Program, 

but the way in which it was utilized in Ferguson, quite frankly in 

short, was wrong. All day it was wrong. And many chiefs across 

this country have spoken out against the fact that, how it was used 

was wrong. 

Now the other piece, or the other side to your point, Mr. Chairman, is the fact that post-9/11, this country is still in a position 

where we are keeping ourselves safe. Police departments across 

this country are certainly being confronted with small arms and 

large arms that are at the pleasure of a lot of criminals that are 

out there. 

We find situations, and certainly I have seen situations, in my 

county in DeKalb where we have used equipment, they are not 

tanks, we do not own bazookas and sometimes I think this equipment gets exaggerated because none of us have rocket launchers or 

bazookas, but to the common layperson it all looks the same. I get 

it. It is the optics of it. 

But the reality of it is, there are going to be times when police 

are going to have to respond to active shooters. If we think about 

situations across this country where we have had school shootings, 

mall shootings, movie theater shootings, we want our officers to be 

able to get in, find that target, and do what needs to be done to 

save the lives of others. The only way they are going to do that 

sometimes is, they are going to have to be in armored equipment. 

The problem is not the equipment itself, it is the utilization of 

it and before that heavy equipment, in my opinion, is given out, 

there needs to be—you need to be able to show a need for it in your 
37 

community. That is number one. You need to be able to show cause 

and a need. 

Number two, you need to be held accountable to that equipment 

which means that you have to have written policies which have its 

terms of engagement as to when you will take that equipment out 

and under what circumstances it would be used for. 

One thing we cannot use it for is for people who are peacefully 

protesting in this country. We cannot do that. The optics on Ferguson was horrific and I think it shocked many people in this country, all across this country, regardless of whether they were Democrats or Republicans, Black or White, men or women. It was shocking. And we learned from it, hopefully. 

But what we want to be able to do is also protect our police officers. But there has to be a time and moment when that equipment 

is utilized because if I am being held hostage in my home or in my 

bank when I am making a deposit, I want the police to be able to 

get there and be safe in getting there so that they can secure that 

bank, arrest that criminal, and get me home. 

So there is a place for it, but it is not to be used against American people who are protesting and exercising their First Amendment right as to what we all witnessed and which, understandably, 

left a bad taste in many Americans’ mouths. 

Chairman DURBIN. Thank you very much, Dr. Alexander. 

Mr. ALEXANDER. Thank you. 

Chairman DURBIN. My thanks to this panel. There has been a 

great deal of interest in this hearing today. We have here a statement from Senator Leahy and statements from more than 70 different organizations wanting to be a part of the record on this general overview of civil rights in America today. Since there is no one 

here to object, it is going to be put in the record. 

[The prepared statement of Chairman Leahy appears as a submission for the record.] 

[The information appears as submissions for the record.] 

Chairman DURBIN. I want to make two closing comments. 

First, I want to acknowledge Mara Silver on my staff who has 

been the author of the Smarter Sentencing Act and has worked 

harder on it than anybody. Mara, thank you so much for what you 

have done. 

And special thanks to Joe Zogby who, 8 years ago, said to me, 

Senator, I think we need a Subcommittee on Human Rights. And 

I said, Joe, what would we talk about? Well, we found a lot to talk 

about for 4 years and then, when we were merged into the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights Subcommittee—I am 

very proud of what this Subcommittee has set out to do, particularly proud of the fact that we actually created legislation that 

starts to address some of these issues rather than just talk about 

them and that is primarily due to the guidance of Joe Zogby and 

the staffers who have worked with him. I thank Joe and his family 

here today, for giving me such great service to this Judiciary Committee. 

There may be some follow-up questions coming your way and if 

you could respond to them in a timely fashion, I would certainly 

appreciate that. 
38 

This is, as I said, my last hearing as Subcommittee Chair for the 

time being and I am hoping that Senator Cruz, or whoever succeeds me, will continue in this tradition of addressing the issues of 

our day. 

Thank you for joining us. 

This Subcommittee stands adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 4:40 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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Æ