Date: 2014-12-01
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

Allow me to add my appreciation for the continued leadership of my friend and colleague from New York and to thank the previous speakers. We all associate ourselves with the passion. the commitment. the determination that has been expressed. Let me. as I stand. acknowledge that I am particularly pleased to be associated with distinguished legislators. Many people in this Nation have their particular roles as pastors and as civil rights leaders. In a meeting held right before the Thanksgiving holiday. members of the Congressional Black Caucus were reminded of the giant role that they have played over the years in combining passion with legislation. hearings with pain. As early as the 1990s. we held hearings on the questions of excessive force. as well as of the issues of racial profiling along the highways of America. of the issue of excessive sentencing in the crack cocaine disparities. of the issue of dealing with the overincarceration of minorities and the overfilling of jails. Today. Mr. Speaker. I rise to plead to my colleagues. We are legislators. and we cannot legislate without the partnership of Republicans. so I stand as a Democrat and as a member of the Congressional Black Caucus that has always been cited as the conscience of America to say that we need to walk in step on the conspicuous Achilles heels of America. that is the criminal justice system. As we stand here today. every one of us has applauded a police officer. has mourned at their passing in the line of duty. has given them awards. has stood alongside of themevery one of us. Certainly. I will not take a backseat to anyone on my respect for law enforcement across the gamut. I recognize that they are here to protect and serve. and I think it is very crucial that our friends in law enforcement recognize the work that members of the Congressional Black Caucus have done. if not individually. then collectively. Let me say that I also admire the young St. Louis Rams players who raised their hands to be able to share in the dignity of those young. peaceful protesters. If we dont affirm nonviolence. then who will? I think everyonelaw enforcement and otherswho agree or disagree should recognize young people like the ones in Houston. Texas. "Dont shoot." That does not in any way denigrate or disrespect our law enforcement officers. For just a few minutes. I want to speak about that aspect and how we see the justice system. To my colleagues. this is 2.500 pages. Those documents issued by the DA in St. Louis County were 10.000 pages. I am continuing to grow this stack. It is clear that what happened in the grand jury system. for many who dont know that system. is that those individuals are appointed by a judge. A single judge says. "Who do I know in the community? Let me see if I can appoint 12 of them." In St. Louis County. it took nine to indict. If you listen to New York State Chief Judge Sol Wachtler. who famously remarked that a prosecutor could persuade a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. when I served on the municipal court. there were many probable cause hearings that we held. and there were many efforts by police officers to get a warrant. to be able to go when they thought there was suspicion of a crime. We worked with law enforcement officers. In fact. the data says. according to the Bureau of Justice statistics. U.S. attorneys prosecuted 162.000 Federal cases. In 2010. which is the most recent year for which we have data. grand juries declined to return an indictment in 11. That is Federal. That is not the State system in Missouri. but I assure you it is comparable. So what happened in Missouri as it relates to the criminal justice system? First of all. a grand jury system is not a jury of your peers. A grand jury indictment is not a conviction. It would not have meant. if there was an indictment. that the officer in question was convicted. It would simply mean that we would transition to the jury system. and we would be able to address the question of Michael Browns rights. for Michael Brown was protected under the Constitution. The First Amendment not only talks about freedom of religion and speech. it talks about the right of association and the right of movement. Michael Brown. an 18yearold "big boy." as his mom and dad lovingly called him. had a right to move. had a right to move on the streets of America. But he was denied that right. He was denied that right with seven shots. So there has to be a question. No one would deny that there is a reason to have a full trial. and the question would be: Why didnt the St. Louis district attorney act like many other district attorneys? I know there are some who are in that role here on this floor tonight. which is presenting a case. and let the jury ultimately decide. And the facts in the grand jury evidenced that a question remains. Let me say these two points as I close. I am a supporter of the executive order of the President for body cams. and there are many legislative initiatives that include that. but we need a broad view of what we are going to do in this situation. As I indicated to you. a grand jury is something different from a trial. a petit jury or a trial by your peers. So I would say that what happened in St. Louis was not the way that the process usually goes. Mr. McCulloch threw this on the grand jurors. And you needed ninenine. Unfortunately. the configuration of that jury made it very unclear that there was not going to be an indictment. So today I think it is very important that we address several questions. We need to look at the grand jury system here across the Nation. We need to look at it in the name of Sean Bell. Amadou Diallo. Eric Garner. Robbie Tolan. in my community. where the police officer was not indicted. Trayvon Martin. a civilian. Michael Brown. and the 12yearold boy. We need to look at it from the perspective of why isnt communityoriented policing used? Why wasnt it used in Ferguson? Under the Urban Justice Act. which I have introduced. it says that communities that rely heavily on fines and other means of funding their government. their Federal funding should be diminished accordingly if their whole base of living and funding is just to stop people along the streets. I said racial profiling. the expanding of civilian review boards. the increasing of diversity. which is being tried. unfortunately a little late in Ferguson. the use of conservatorships. of taking over police departments until they get it right. and last but certainly not least. educational reformation in teaching our young boys. our minority boys. along with things like My Brothers Keeper. To my colleagues today. this is only the beginning. And I believe. as Martin King said: Where do we go from here? It is imperative that legislation join with compassion. that it not only be Democrats or members of the Congressional Black Caucus. but we want partners. Republicans who realize that the criminal justice system. as it penetrates into local communities. must be enhanced. changed. and reformed. How long can we tolerate the shooting down of our children in streets? And it has nothing to do with ones respect or lack of respect for law enforcement. from the very high levels of the FBI. DEA. and ATF. to our local constables and sheriffs and police officers. So tonight my question is: Where do we go from here? The question is a reformation of the grand jury system. And I would almost say that a special prosecutor should have been the route in Missouri. and I would hope that we would look to legislative fixes with our colleagues to make America better. The Congressional Black Caucus will not be silenced. Those of us who serve on the respective jurisdictional committees will not be silenced. We will not be silenced because America is better than this. a country that we love. Where do we go from here? We must fix it. and fix it now.