Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu National Blue Alert Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the ranking member for the time; I want to thank the chairman for scheduling these bills; and particularly I want to thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Reichert) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell) for bringing them.
My first job out of law school was attorney for the Memphis Police Department, and I served 3 1/2 years working as the attorney for the Memphis Police Department. I know that police are on the front lines of democracy in seeing that we have a society that can function and that we have people's rights protected in a most direct way.
The ranking member talked about the losses of the lives in New York of Officer Davis; the two officers this bill is named for, Officers Ramos and Liu; and then there were the two officers killed in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, each of which is tragic and each of which caused me to grieve and be mournful about the loss of these men's lives in the course of duty.
While we have some issues with law enforcement in certain areas, we need to have law enforcement; and the loss of any life of a law enforcement member in the actions of their duties or because of their position is wrong, and we should have a system in place to apprehend and arrest somebody who, with probable cause, committed that crime.
I also want to thank the chairman of the committee for scheduling a hearing next week on civil rights issues. These issues go together. No one should lose their life wrongfully. We must deal with these issues, and it is commendable.
There are some good things happening in Congress. So many times I go home, and people talk about the acrimony and don't we get along. Well, we get some things done, and we get some things done together, and the Judiciary Committee is doing some of those things.
I want to thank the chairman and the ranking member, who is not here, for that.
I am a proud sponsor of this bill. I hope everybody will vote for it and pass it. It will save some law enforcement people's lives.
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