TIP Act of 2014

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 them--every 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 don't affirm nonviolence, then who will?

I think everyone--law enforcement and others--who agree or disagree should recognize young people like the ones in Houston, Texas. ``Don't 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 don't 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 Brown's 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 18-year-old ``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 didn't 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 nine--nine. 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 12-year-old boy. We need to look at it from the perspective of why isn't community-oriented policing used? Why wasn't 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 Brother's 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 one's 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.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous that all Members be given 5 days to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, ``hands up, don't shoot'' is a rallying cry of people all across America who are fed up with police violence in community after community after community, fed up with police violence in Ferguson, in Brooklyn, in Cleveland, in Oakland, in cities and counties and rural communities all across America.

So tonight the CBC will stand on the floor of the House of Representatives and, for the next 60 minutes, speak on the topic, ``Black in America: What Does Ferguson Say About Where We Are and Where We Need to Go?''

People are fed up all across America because of the injustice involved in continuing to see young, unarmed, African American men killed as a result of a gunshot fired by a law enforcement officer.

People in America are fed up with a broken criminal justice system that continues to fail to deliver accountability when law enforcement officers engage in the excessive use of police force.

People are fed up with prosecutors who don't take seriously their obligation to deliver justice on behalf of the victims of police violence, and instead, as we recently saw down in Ferguson, Missouri, choose to act as the defense attorney for the law enforcement officer who pulled the trigger and killed Michael Brown.

People are fed up.

Now, this is a problem that Congress can't run away from, and the CBC stands here today to make sure that Congress runs toward the problem, that we come up with constructive solutions to breaking this cycle, this epidemic, this scourge of police violence all across America.

So I am pleased today that we have been joined by several of our distinguished colleagues, including the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, who, for the last 2 years, has led the charge on behalf of the CBC in dealing with issues of social and racial and economic justice. I am proud to serve under her. I am proud that she is on the floor today. We are thankful for her service.

Mr. Speaker, let me now yield to the distinguished gentlewoman from Cleveland, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chair for her eloquent remarks.

People have asked all over the country, in some quarters, perhaps in the Congress, and in the city, why are people upset?

Well, you had an unarmed individual, Michael Brown, who had no criminal record, just graduated from high school, on his way to college, killed in what appears to be the excessive use of police force, left to lie in the hot August sun for 4\1/2\ hours.

Immediate response by the police chief is to engage in character assassination of the deceased, while refusing to release the name of the officer who pulled the trigger.

The Ferguson Police Department responds as if this was a military campaign on foreign soil, not in an American city.

The prosecutor decides to get involved and does a document dump; doesn't engage in responsible prosecutorial behavior; fails to ask for a specific charge; allows the officer to testify, unabated; doesn't point out inconsistencies between his initial telling of the events of that fateful day and what he said before the grand jury; and then announces all of this late at night, and behaves as if he was the defense attorney for Darren Wilson.

Why are people upset?

Those are just a few of the reasons.

Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to yield to the distinguished delegate from the District of Columbia, Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton.

I thank the distinguished gentlewoman for her observations.

Mr. Speaker, we are here as members of the Congressional Black Caucus to have an open, honest, and direct dialogue with America.

In a democracy, there has to be a balance between effective law enforcement on the one hand and a healthy respect for the Constitution and the civil rights of others, particularly of African Americans, on the other. If we are honest, we have not gotten that balance right, and as a result, we see young, unarmed, innocent African American men being gunned down in city after city in America, and we are here to say, ``Enough is enough.''

I am pleased now to yield to someone who has served this institution incredibly well as a Member of Congress, who has served the country well as a member of the military, the lion of Lenox Avenue, the distinguished gentleman from the great State of New York and the village of Harlem, Representative Charlie Rangel.

I thank the distinguished gentleman from New York for his always eloquent and poignant observations.

Let me now yield to one of my dynamic colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee.

I thank the distinguished gentlelady from Texas for lending her powerful voice to this issue.

We want a fair, impartial, and color-blind criminal justice system. But if we are honest with ourselves, that doesn't exist for all Americans today, and that undermines the integrity of our democracy. That is not just a Black problem or a White problem or a Democratic problem or a Republican problem. That is an American problem. That is why the Congressional Black Caucus stands on the House floor here today to jump-start--not just a discussion, but a march toward making meaningful progress as we move toward perfecting this great Union.

It is my honor and my privilege to now yield to my good friend and colleague from the great State of New York, someone who, himself, is a former prosecutor and who has been involved in the fight for social and racial justice during his tremendous tenure here in the United States Congress.

I now yield to the distinguished gentleman from New York City, the borough of Queens, Congressman Gregory Meeks.

I thank my friend, the distinguished gentleman from New York, for his very eloquent and thoughtful remarks, as always.

And now it is my honor and my privilege to yield to a great civil rights leader, a former judge, the distinguished gentleman from the great State of Texas, Representative Al Green.

I thank the distinguished gentleman from Texas.

Mr. Speaker, how much time do we have remaining?

It is now my honor and privilege to yield to the gentlewoman from New York, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, my good friend. She is a distinguished Congresswoman who represents the neighboring district at home in Brooklyn. She is a fighter for justice and a voice for the voiceless.

Thank you, Congresswoman Clarke.

Mr. Speaker, Akai Gurley in Brooklyn did not deserve to die. Tamir Rice in Cleveland did not deserve to die. Michael Brown in Ferguson did not deserve to die. The Congressional Black Caucus is determined to make sure that these and many other deaths at the hands of law enforcement resulting from the use of excessive force will not be in vain.

Mr. Speaker, it is now my honor and my privilege to yield to the distinguished gentleman from the great State of Indiana, Congressman Andre Carson, one of the mighty voices of the hip-hop generation here in the United States Congress who powerfully represents his Midwestern district.

I thank the distinguished gentleman for his eloquent remarks.

Mr. Speaker, let me now yield to the distinguished gentleman from Maryland, the great Elijah Cummings, for his remarks.

I thank the distinguished gentleman from Maryland.

I now yield to one of my colleagues in the freshman class, soon to be a dynamic sophomore, the distinguished gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty).

Mr. Speaker, we have come a long way. We still have a long way to go. We look forward to marching toward a more perfect Union.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have never felt more proud of my colleague from New York, for the great leadership that he has provided, since his arrival in this august body.

This is such a great country, and I love it so much. I was raised in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, and when I graduated from law school, having been the only one in my family having gone to college, I think my mother said, ``Thank you, Jesus,'' and I said something like, ``Thanks for the Constitution, and thanks for being born in America.''

Like anything else you love, if there is an illness, if there is a problem, you would want to know what can you do to cure it. How can you make it all that our country can be? How can we say that we have a cancer that, until we recognize that we do, then we don't really love the country?

How can we be able to say that White and Black in this country are equal and that those who work hard and live by the rules have the same opportunities as each other, when we know that we have this cancer that sometimes we are able to make the country do a lot better than it has since our people were the only ones who were actually brought here in chains?

I marched from Selma to Montgomery, and things that I never had the opportunity to dream--because equality never was on the list in my community--but if, as a result of this, I have lived long enough to see African American men and women be elected to local and State offices around this country, to come here and join with nine African American Members of Congress in 1970 and to walk tall and know that, in that short period of time, we have grown to over 40, 45 Members of Congress, does that mean that we have rid ourselves of the cancer? I think not.

How can we do it? It is by admitting that we do have that problem because, whether we are talking about Ferguson or Watts or Harlem or Bed-Stuy, until we admit that we have this illness and that we have this problem, then singling out the success of some of us in this country does not heal the wounds that have been left through the centuries of racial hatred and prejudice.

We have been able to say we were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, but the truth of the matter is our people have been in slavery more than we have been so-called free people, and the fact that they said that you are no longer a slave didn't mean that you were an American with all the rights and the privileges of it.

It hasn't been that long that I can remember my grandfather from Accomac, Virginia, talking about innocent people being lynched in Virginia, and it hasn't been that long that our people have been granted the constitutional right to--what--vote, and it hasn't been that long ago that they even said that our schools should be desegregated or the military desegregated.

Until we reach the point that African American parents don't have to tell their kids to act differently just because of their color, that they have to succumb to a type of conduct that you teach them, on one hand, to be a man and stand up for your rights, but if he is in uniform, then beg and plead and don't say anything that might irritate him--I think--I really believe--that the people who unconsciously don't know and don't care about the heavy weight that Black folks have carried in this country over the centuries that they were brought here cannot possibly love the country as much as they would if they were to say it was not a Ferguson problem, it is an American problem.

They should be able to ask what is it that they could do. I would humbly suggest that the first thing you do is to acknowledge that you have that problem.

Some people may talk about payment for restitution for past crimes committed against human beings, but that restitution could be the ability to say that we are going to make certain that people of color in this country would be able to have access to the same type of education, live where they want to live, compete against anybody for the job and not feel that they are inferior because people have been taught that, just because they have a different complexion, that they are superior, and they think that because they were born on third base that just being born means they can hit a home run.

The fact is that all of us, collectively, would know that, whether you

are black or brown or yellow--or whatever the complexion is--that the greatest benefit and asset that we have as a nation is that we bring in all of these cultures together to build the greatest Nation on Earth.

Whether we have another Ferguson in another 10 years or 20 years, it doesn't have to be. What has to be is that we cut this poison out of the system of this great country and openly say that we have this problem, and then, as the parents of Mr. Brown would want, that death would have been just another sacrifice that one of us has made to wake up this wonderful country to do what has to be done.

Let me thank you for constantly reminding us that we have come a long, long way from how we got here, but we have a long way to go. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker, I wanted mention Mr. Horsford. He is not here tonight, but I always associate him with Mr. Jeffries. They have been a great dynamic duo. And they have done outstanding work with these Special Order hours. In his absence, I want to let him know that we still greatly appreciate him and we miss him.

Mr. Speaker, I had a John Carlos moment. For edification purposes, John Carlos was the athlete at the 1968 Olympics who went to the podium, along with Tommie Smith, and raised his hand in what was called at that time a Black Power salute.

At that time, much was said about John Carlos and Tommie Smith. Many people criticized them for taking the podium and making this gesture. They were said to be outside of the mainstream. But I believe that history has vindicated them because they were a part of the avant- garde. They actually were causing many people to understand that the Black Power movement at that time was much bigger than many thought.

I had a John Carlos moment because I saw this clip where the Rams players came into the arena: Hands up; don't

shoot. It was a John Carlos moment because this has become the new symbol, a new statement, a statement wherein people around the country now are calling to the attention of those who don't quite understand that this is a movement that will not dissipate; it will not evaporate.

It is a movement that is going to continue because young people--a new generation--have decided that they are going to engage themselves in the liberation movement, the freedom movement, if you will, the continuation of what happened in 1968 with John Carlos and Tommy Lee Smith.

I want to make sure that those who participated on the Rams team, that their names are chronicled in history. I want people who look back through the vista of time to know who they were when they search the Congressional Records. So I want to add their names to this Record. I want Kenny Britt to be recognized, Tavon Austin to be recognized, Stedman Bailey to be recognized, Jared Cook, Chris Givens, and Tre Mason. These are persons who in the years to come will be acknowledged as a part the avant-garde.

I want people to know also that I appreciate and support what the President is doing with his executive action. I support what he is doing with body cameras, and I support what he is doing with body cameras because I believe that body cameras can exonerate, and they can as well incriminate. They can exonerate officers who are falsely accused. They can provide empirical evidence of what actually transpired. There won't be ``he said'' or ``she said.'' There will be the empirical evidence of what the camera actually saw. They can also incriminate those who would try to perpetrate a fraud upon the American people. Body cameras can identify those who would engage in criminal conduct and then try to excuse their conduct with words that don't match what the camera will reveal.

I believe in body cameras. This is why I have filed H.R. 5407, the TIP Act, Transparency in Policing. The TIP Act would cause the Justice Department to examine the circumstance in this country, the costs for body cameras, and would then allow those jurisdictions that cannot afford to incorporate body cameras into their police departments, there would be an exemption for them, but would require those generally speaking who receive Federal dollars to move to body cameras.

I regret that we are getting to a point now where we are getting it right after the fact. We shouldn't get it right after the fact. This is what is happening in Ferguson. After the fact, Ferguson is moving to body cameras. But we don't need another Ferguson. There are other communities around the country where after the fact they are moving to body cameras. We don't need to have an injustice take place before we move to a just circumstance and incorporate these body cameras.

My hope is that we will follow the President's lead and that we will incorporate body cameras into police departments across the length and breadth and the scope of this country, if you will. But I also pray that this bill, H.R. 5407 will get a hearing. It is overwhelmingly supported by members of the CBC as well as others. It is not a CBC initiative, but it is supported overwhelmingly by the CBC, and my hope is that this bill will get a fair hearing because we should not get it right after the fact.

We should have an opportunity to eliminate a lot of what we see as confusion and chaos. We need not continue to add fuel to the flame of confusion. That flame can be eliminated if we but only had these body cameras. They are not a cure-all, and they are not a panacea, but they are a positive step in the right direction. I salute the President and thank him for what he is doing, and I pray that we will get a fair hearing on H.R. 5407.

God bless you, dear brother, and I pray that you will continue to do what you are doing on the floor of the House in giving us this voice so that we may reach the American people.

I want to thank my friend and colleague, a great attorney, a great legislator, for leading this effort this evening, for not only here on the floor of the House of Representatives but for what you do every day; and, in fact, it is an example of what we could follow, how you lead in your district, especially in Brooklyn.

Rallying around, as I will talk about later, when you saw a prosecutor not do his job, you were one that led in Brooklyn to say the people will get a people's prosecutor. And folks went to the polls. When someone said it couldn't be done, where you led and helped make it happen, where an incumbent forgot his way and was not representing the people, you helped people get together to go to the polls and have a new prosecutor in Brooklyn to move forward. We thank you for that leadership.

Today we talk about Black in America. What Ferguson says about where we are and where we need to go.

Now, as Congressman Jeffries has said, I am a former prosecutor, so I know about the grand jury system. I know the failure of the grand jury process directed or, as some would argue, manipulated by county prosecutor Robert McCulloch to indict Police Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, Jr., an unarmed Ferguson, Missouri, teenager, undermines public confidence in the very notion of equal administration of justice.

Now, when you go before a grand jury, all you have to show is that there is probable cause--probable cause, the lowest standard there is-- that a crime was committed. And when you see the process that this prosecutor went through, he tried to try a case, or he came in with a preconceived thought that he did not want an indictment here. I don't know of any prosecutors that go into the grand jury and don't at least, after it is all done, ask for an indictment. Mr. McCulloch never asked for an indictment in this case.

The tragic circumstances in Ferguson and other unfortunate instances around the country have sparked a movement for justice, equality, and change that I believe is critical to the communities affected by miscarriages of justice. But this movement is not just for those communities. Indeed, the United States of America needs this movement. As others have said, this is an American problem. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., once said, ``Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'' Racial disparities of any kind are troubling for our entire Nation.

And so, though we have elected President Barack Obama here in the United States, I heard some say that we were in a post-racial America. No, we are not. For racism is still alive and well in the United States of America. We have got work to do.

So where do we go?

This movement, with its courageous contingent of young activists, is quickly learning, adapting, applying, and innovating on the most effective methods and models of the civil rights movements of previous generations. As this movement continues to grow and takes every opportunity to focus its demands, expand its outreach, develop its activists in the discipline of peaceful direct action, and deepen its understanding of how to apply mass pressure on policymakers, it will cascade not simply to interrupt business as usual, but to generate electoral participation on levels unseen in generations. This movement has the potential to transform the tragedy in Ferguson into a historic turning point in the centuries-long struggle for freedom, justice, and equality.

The Congressional Black Caucus is part of this moment and is a part of this movement. Tens of thousands of Federal, State, and local elected officials, civic leaders, civil rights organizations, activists, clergies, lawyers, educators, artists, athletes, business owners, and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of ordinary working people of all ages from all over America are part of this movement.

So now is the time for America to come together to reform police practices, redress patterns of racial disparities in the justice system, and to hold police accountable for the use of excessive force, especially deadly force. Now is the time to match nonviolent direct action with meaningful legislative and administrative action. Now is the time for the Federal Government to act, for Congress to act, for courts to act, for State legislatures to act, for county and city governments to act.

Now is the time, my friends, to register to vote, because soon, very soon, it will be time to act at the ballot boxes. Only then will these voices be truly heard in every corner of every county and throughout this country. Then the world will know that unwarranted violence and abuse of power has no home in America; injustice has no seat in our democratic institutions. Only then will we honor the sacrifice of those who have paid the ultimate price and begin to heal a Nation of many who aspire to become one.

Yes, indeed, we have come a long way; but yes, indeed, we have a long, long, long way to go.

I thank the gentleman for the time.