Val Demings: “I spent 27 years as a law enforcement officer. I had the honor of working my way up through the ranks to become the…”

“I spent 27 years as a law enforcement officer. I had the honor of working my way up through the ranks to become the chief of police. I co-chaired an antigang task force for the State of Florida. As chief, I launched an all-out war against violent crime. Through the hard work of a lot of good men and women, we were able to reduce violent crime by 40 percent. Do I take gang activity very seriously? You better believe I do. I have the record to prove that. The spirit of H.R. 3697, with this broad, new definition of what constitutes a gang, has nothing, based on my experience on the ground, to do with curtailing gang activity. As a former law enforcement officer who has been there on the front lines, there is no way I would vote for this law. This law targets a group of people based on their status and does not target criminal activity. That is what law enforcement officers do. We all take gang activity seriously. I heard the question earlier: Who would favor gangs? Who really would favor gangs? I invite my colleagues on the other side to join me in continuing our aggressive efforts to target criminal behavior, because that is really what we want to stop--criminal behavior--and not profile or target people. That is just not who we are.”