On the recordDecember 1, 2014
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.
