Date: 2015-05-12
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let me thank Chairman GOODLATTE and Ranking Member CONYERS of the Judiciary Committee for this timely presentation and the offering of this legislation on the floor this week. which is a time to commemorate and mourn and to uphold the Nations law enforcement. It is a very important statement that we make today on the floor of the House. As a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee. a ranking member of the Subcommittee on Crime. Terrorism. Homeland Security. and Investigations. and yes. as a Member of Congress from Houston. which has one of the Nations most effective police departments. and as a cosponsor of the House companion measure. I rise in strong support of S. 665. the Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu National Blue Alert Act of 2015. I. too. thank Senator CARDIN. Congressman REICHERT. and my colleague and friend. Congressman PASCRELL. I am also a cosponsor. I thank them for their particular leadership on this bill. Every day. more than 900.000 officers protect and serve the people of the United States. On average. one law enforcement officer is killed in the line of duty every 58 hours. Each year. there is an average of 58.930 assaults on our law enforcement officers. resulting in 15.404 injuries. Just yesterday. in Hattiesburg. Mississippi. the community held a memorial for two dedicated public servants fatally shot during a traffic stop on Saturday night. Married and the father of two. Benjamin Deen. a 34yearold canine officer. was recognized in 2012 as the Hattiesburg Officer of the Year. Liquori Tate. just 25 years old. fulfilled a childhood dream when he graduated from the police academy and joined the police force less than 1 year ago. Many of us heard the sympathetic and emotional outpouring by his family of his love of being a law enforcement officer. For the community of Hattiesburg. the senseless deaths of onduty officers are the first in three decades. Hattiesburg is not alone. however. in these tragic developments. Law enforcement fatalities in the U.S. rose 24 percent in 2014. reversing 2 years of significant decline. The number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty rose from 102 in 2013 to 126 in 2014. Statistics released yesterday by the FBI show that 51 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2014. This is an increase of almost 89 percent when compared to the 27 killed in 2013. Of those 51 felonious deaths. offenders used firearms in 46 of them. Just 1 day before this tragedy in Mississippi. Officer Brian Moore was laid to rest thousands of miles away in Long Island. New York. After 6 p.m. on a Saturday. Moore and his partner came upon the gunman. After identifying himself as a police officer and asking the gunman about the object in his waistband. the gunman fatally shot Moore in the face. Moore was 20 years old when he joined the New York Police Department. After over 5 years of service. he earned two Meritorious Police Duty medals and two Excellent Police Duty medals. He died several days after he was shot. The killing of Officer Moore in New York City comes on the heels of the December killings of New York Police Department Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. for whom this legislation before us memorializes. These officers were killed on a Saturday afternoon while sitting in their parked patrol car by a man who shared his intent to kill police officers on social media. This man traveled from Maryland to New York to execute his plan. and. unfortunately. at the same time Maryland authorities were warning the NYPD of this threat. Officers Ramos and Liu were being assassinated. Benjamin Deen. Liquori Tate. Brian Moore. Rafael Ramos. and Wenjian Liu and other fallen heroes join the more than 20.000 U.S. law enforcement officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice since the first known lineofduty death in 1791. nearly 1.700 of whom hail from my home State of Texas and 121 from the Houston Police Department. The brave men and women who risk their lives to keep the peace and keep us safe are too often taken by the violence they are working to prevent. When a law enforcement officer is seriously injured or killed. rapid dissemination of information about the suspected criminal is critical to ensuring justice for that officer and keeping the public safe. Here lies the opportunity for this important legislation. The Blue Alert System is modeled after the AMBER Alert and the Silver Alert. Currently. 22 States. including my home State of Texas. have local Blue Alert programs in operation. The gist of this legislation is to provide for the coordination and the provisions for other States to participate and to help other States participate in a Blue Alert plan. This Blue Alert plan. I hope. will save lives or will. in essence. save and protect law enforcement officers or bring their perpetrator. tragically. of their death. to justice. This is an important statement this week as we mourn those who have fallen in the service of their country as law enforcement officers. This is an important action. if you will. to tell the families of these officers that we care. I hope my colleagues will join us in supporting this legislation. Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.