Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, George Floyd died under the knee of a police officer 302 days ago. In the time since then, 797 people--more than 2\1/2\ every day--have died during encounters with law enforcement. Black Americans are 2\1/2\ times as likely as White Americans to be killed by the police. Police use of force is now the sixth-leading cause of death for young Black men in this country. This cannot continue. It is time to address systemic racism in policing. Mr. Speaker, this bill will begin to do that. It ends choke holds. It will hold bad officers accountable, combat racial profiling, and demilitarize police departments. This bill is about ensuring accountability and restoring trust between law enforcement and their communities. Both the police and the community deserve that and will benefit from it. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be a cosponsor, and I urge my colleagues to support it. And I would say, there has been a lot of discussion about defunding the police. The only party in this Chamber defunding the police are the Republicans, who just voted against billions of dollars to support local and State government, first responders, police officers. We supported that. We are funding the police. They voted to defund it. Mr. Speaker, this bill restores relationships between the police and the community, and I urge its passage.”