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

Mr. Speaker. I thank Congressman JEFFRIES for his leadership. and I thank the Speaker. I am sorry that we were walking across the floor. and we may not publicly say it. but we thank you for your clarification. and to my good friend on the Judiciary Committee. Judge GOHMERT. who has engaged in the issues of the criminal justice system. We are grateful for your knowledge on these issues. I want to leave two points behind as we clarify how we can move forward and recognize crises. but yet not be overcome by such. Might I thank the former mayor of New York for his provocativeness. but say that I disagree with some of the interpretation of why officers are in the African American community. A statistic does say. in fact. that over 2005 to 2012. a white police officer used deadly force against an African American person almost two times every week. That does not have to be because we know there are broader ways of addressing these questions. so let me say to you why there is such ire about what happened to Michael Brown. As I started out in my remarks about the grand jury system. it is one that raises the fact question. and if the fact question is not answered. why were his hands up? Why was he shot these many times? Then you go to a jury of your peers. It is a criminal justice system that no matter what color. creed. race. or religion you are. abiding by the Constitution. you can clearly say a question has been raised. and justice needs to answer that question. Mr. Speaker. that is what we are asking for. a simple justice that allows everyone to stand at the table of opportunity. equality. and rightness. So I would make the argument tonight that we have laid out a roadmap with a number of suggestions. whether it is camerassupporting the Presidents request for moneywhether it is legislation dealing with the utilization of tickets and citations. stopping people from moving. whether or not it is My Brothers Keeper. I believe that the Judiciary Committee. along with our colleagues. Republicans and Democrats. can raise up the specter of the Constitution and no matter who we are. we can look at those young men in St. Louis who raised their hands. applaud them for their work. applaud law enforcement officers who are engaged in communityoriented policing. and make a purposeful commitment that we will follow in the pathway of nonviolence and use the tools that our Constitution has given us to make our criminal justice system work for all of us. whether we are poor. whether we are rich. whether in unique communities. or whether we are Big Mike. We are going to say to Mr. Brown and we are going to say to Mikes mother that justice is going to come. not respecting whether or not we stand on one side or another. one race or another. because we are going to do right. I have faith in the Constitution. and I have faith in this Congress. For the very reason that Judge GOHMERT yielded us the time to finish our words. I know that we will be engaged. Republicans and Democrats. with the Congressional Black Caucus in a pathway forward to make America rise to our higher angels and to the Constitution that we so love. Thank you. Mr. JEFFRIES. for your leadership. Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding and for convening this very timely Special Order on one of major challenges facing our nation: how can we best rise from the ashes of the miscarriages of justice in Ferguson. Missouri and restore the trust and confidence of all Americans in the fairness and impartiality of the criminal justice system. That trust and confidence does not exist today among large segments of our population in the wake of the killing of Michael Brown. an unarmed teenager who died after absorbing six gunshots from a Ferguson. Missouri police officer even though he posed no imminent threat. was not resisting arrest. and was observed by numerous witness to be holding his hands up. the universal sign of surrender. Compounding this unreasonable and excessive use of lethal force was the failuresome might say refusalof the local prosecutor to obtain an indictment of any kind against the officer who killed Michael Brown. The strength and foundation of democratic government rests upon the consent and confidence of the governed. Similarly. effective enforcement of the law and administration of justice requires the confidence of the community that the law will be enforced impartially and that all persons are treated equally without regard to race or ethnicity or religion or national origin. While most police officers take this responsibility seriously and strive to treat all persons equally and with respect. their efforts are too often undermined by some of their colleagues who abuse the enormous trust and confidence placed in them. Remedial action should be taken with respect to officers whose conduct has been determined. after an adjudicatory proceeding. to violate applicable legal standards. In recent months. the nation has been repeatedly shocked by the killings of unarmed African Americans. mainly young African American males. by persons claiming. despite substantial and credible evidence to the contrary. that the use of lethal force was justified. The tragic killing of Michael Brown is just one of the worst examples. In August of this year in Staten Island. unarmed Eric Garner. an asthmatic 43yearold father of six and grandparent. died from an unlawful chokehold administered by a New York Police Department officer who suspected Mr. Garner of selling an untaxed pack of cigarettes. And closer to home my constituents in the 18th Congressional District of Texas and I all remember the outrageous case involving young Robbie Tolan. who was shot and seriously injured by a white Bellaire Police Department officer while in the driveway of his home. 15 to 20 feet away from the officer. had committed no crime. and whose innocence had been affirmed to the officer by his mother and father. Let me state at the outset that as a Member of Congress and member of the bar that I hold the rule of law sacred. I have always supported law enforcement and have always recognized the value and importance of prosecutors seeking justice and defense attorneys fighting to protect the rights of the accused. I also revere the grand jury process. which on the federal level at least. has been one of the bulwarks safeguarding the public and the accused since the ratification of the 5th in I do not fault the decision to impanel a grand jury to investigate the killing of Michael Brown. on the contrary. a grand jury investigation was the proper way to proceed. Like many others. however. I have two main concerns regarding the way the grand jury investigation was conducted. First. the failure of the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney. Robert McCulloch. to recuse himself and seek the appointment of a Special Counsel was a grave mistake. Not just because his father was a St. Louis policeman killed in the line of duty by a black man when he was 12. Not just because his brother. nephew and cousin all served with the St. Louis police and that his mother worked as a clerk for the force for 20 years. And not just because Mr. McCulloch would have joined the police force too. but he lost a leg in high school due to cancer. Mr. McCullochs credibility and reputation for fairness has been at low ebb among African Americans in St. Louis County since his handling of the notorious "JackintheBox" shooting in June 2000. in which two officers approached a stopped car carrying two unarmed African American men from the front and fired 21 shots. killing Earl Murray and Ronald Beasley. In the ensuing investigation. Mr. McCulloch put the case to a grand jury which declined to indict the officers. and McCulloch said he agreed with the decision. The story presented by Mr. McCullochs office to the grand jury was that Murrays car moved toward the two officers. who then fired out of selfdefense. The two officers who shot Murray and Beasley were also invited to testify before the grand jury and both men told jurors that Murrays car was coming at them and that they feared being run over. However. a later federal investigation showed that the car had never come at the two officers: Murray never took his car out of reverse. The officers involved in the shooting did not testify truthfully to the grand jury. yet Prosecutor McCulloch stated publicly that he agreed with the decision not to indict. The second major flaw was that the manner in which the grand jury investigation was conducted impeded rather than facilitated the search for truth that is the province of a petit jury. The purpose of a grand jury is twofold: to make the threshold determination as to whether probable cause exists to believe that a crime has been committed and that the accused is the person who committed it. Once this minimal showing has been made. it is for the petit jury to determine whether the evidence presented at trial is sufficient to prove beyond reasonable doubt each essential element of the offense. In discharging its duty. the grand jury looks to. and is dependent upon. the prosecutor for an orderly and coherent presentation of evidence establishing probable cause and for guidance as to the law and in making sense of the evidence and testimony. That did not happen in this case. Instead. the prosecution did not present any indictment that the grand jury could evaluate against the evidence to determine whether to return a "true bill" and did not make any recommendation regarding charges that could or should be lodged. It is common wisdom that a grand jury historically has functioned as a tool of the prosecution. so much so that is frequently noted that a prosecutor could persuade a grand jury to "indict a ham sandwich." This is not an exaggeration. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. U.S. attorneys prosecuted 162.000 federal cases in 2010. the most recent year for which we have data. Grand juries declined to return an indictment in only 11 cases. So the failure of the Ferguson Grand Jury to return an indictment exacerbated the lack of public confidence in the criminal justice system. especially among African Americans. not just in Ferguson. Missouri but all across the country because to many it sends the signal that the lives of African American males have less value that do others. It should be noted that according to the FBIs most recent accounts of "justifiable homicide." in the seven years between 2005 and 2012. a white police officer used deadly force against an African American person almost two times every week. Of those African American persons killed. 18 percent. or nearly one in every five. was under 21 years of age. In contrast. only 8.7 percent of white persons killed by police officers were younger than 21. In 2012. Houston had an African American population of 23.7 percent. That same year. African Americans accounted for 48% percent of victims killed by the police. Chicago was even worse with a whopping 91% of police killings involving an African American victim. nearly three times their percentage of the citys population. For New York. the comparable figures were 87% and 28.36 percent. Across the country. in 2012 there were 739 justifiable homicide shootings by police and citizens and of these. 313 of the victims (42.35%) were African American. This cannot and must not continue. That is why I am renewing my request to Attorney General Holder that the Justice Department consider bringing federal charges so that those responsible for the killing of Michael Brown are held accountable. I am also calling upon the Department of Justice to exercise the authority conferred by the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. which gives the Departments Civil Rights Division authority to investigate state and local law enforcement agencies that it believes have unconstitutional policies or engage in unconstitutional patterns or practices of conduct. The law is intended to address systemic issues. rather than individual complaints. As Americans we must demand that the law is applied fairly and equally to all persons in the courtroom and on the street. Achieving this goal is the best way to honor the memory of Michael Brown.