Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Buck) for his efforts and leadership on this issue. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because I think it is really important that we talk about law enforcement; we talk about what their role is. These are the peacekeepers. The men and women right here on Capitol Hill, the Capitol Police, they are the ones who prevent chaos, that allow for order to stand here in the Capitol complex. In the State of Louisiana, in my hometown of Baton Rouge, back on July 17, we had an extraordinary event. We had five of our law enforcement officers who were responding to a shooter with a long gun; clearly, someone that was dressed and armed in a way to not be helpful to the community. While the rest of us were running away from that shooter, these five men were running toward him. As a result of that, Deputy Brad Garafola lost his life, and his wife, Tonja, is right now a widow. Matthew Gerald lost his life, and Dechia, his wife, is now a widow. Dechia found out 2 weeks after his death that she was pregnant, and he has never seen that baby. That baby doesn't have a father today. We had Montrell Jackson, another Baton Rouge police officer, who lost his life, and his wife, Trenisha, is now a widow. We had Bruce Simmons who got shot, and while he did survive, he is still struggling with recovery, and he and his wife, Pam, continue to go through that from the July 17 shooting from last year.…”