Byron Donalds: “I want to cut to the chase this evening. It is a story I don't really tell much, but when I was 16 years old, I was held…”

“I want to cut to the chase this evening. It is a story I don't really tell much, but when I was 16 years old, I was held up at gunpoint. I was coming home from basketball practice, and it was dark. Frankly, they just came right out of a bodega on the corner. When I got home, the first thing my mother did--well, first, she tried to stop me from going back after the people who robbed me because I was very upset. I was 16 and I was robbed and I was angry. But then she called the police, and they came promptly and they did everything they could to try to find the people who assaulted me. You see, in community after community across our country, the police are the ones who stand in the gap between law-abiding citizens and those, frankly, who are criminalized, who were assaulted, where some damage is caused to that person. The police are the ones in our communities. They patrol the streets. They try to keep our neighborhoods safe. They are the ones who put their lives on the line every single day, who may not go home. They are the ones who are the pillars of every community in our great country. So on National Police Week, the number one thing we need to learn not just on this specific week, but in every week, is that we need to show them the necessary honor and respect that they deserve. Mr. Speaker, we have all seen the videos that get thrown in front of us. We have seen the handful of acts that all Americans find distasteful.…”