Political Quotes

“I also commend General Austin on his recommendations. He is the first Secretary of Defense in the last 10 years--in the last real 100 years--that has said that sexual assault and related crimes should be taken out of the chain of command, of which I agree completely. He has also acknowledged that it is not necessary for good order and discipline or command control that the convening authority be the commander. The convening authority can be the prosecutor, which is our bill. The reason why we advocate for a bright line is that while sexual assaults are handled poorly within the military, so are other crimes when it comes to racial disparity. We have evidence that has been detailed and reported by the Department of Defense that if you are a Black servicemember, you are up to 2.61 times more likely to be prosecuted or punished for crimes due to racial bias within the military justice system. So if we want a military justice system that is fair for everyone, both plaintiffs and defendants, we need a bright line around all serious crimes. I believe that if you allow trained military prosecutors the ability to review the case files for all serious crimes, more cases of sexual assaults will go forward and end in conviction, and then the bias that is seen in other cases will also be reduced. So for the chairman to say that there is no evidence that the command hasn't been doing a good job in other crimes, I would say that is not true.…”