Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I recently stood with my colleagues of the Congressional Black Caucus to call for a National Emergency Summit on Urban Violence. In light of the verdict in Florida, the Trayvon Martin verdict, I wanted to talk about the violence that has recently happened in my district and why we need to do something about mental illness. We had an incident where a man killed his pregnant girlfriend, the mother, and her 10-year-old brother, and then went into a neighboring police station and asked for the police to shoot him. We had another incident, a young Somali boy, only 5 years old. The people that lived in the apartment complex loved to see this little boy ride his bicycle around. A 13-year-old got into a disagreement with him and beat him in the head until he died, and he left him in a backyard. Then we had another recent drive-by shooting in my district where the assailant said he shot the wrong guy, and the wrong guy was an innocent 12-year-old boy. We need to do something about mental illness and about violence that is gripping this country. It is clear that there are many people who due to mental illness do not have the ability to calmly and rationally resolve their differences with others. Instead, they turn to violence. Let's do something about the rising violence in our urban communities. ____________________”