The Criminal Justice System and Police Accountability

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased this morning to speak about a topic that I really believe there is a strong pathway forward. I have said often, as the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, that as we look at the criminal justice system with a myriad of issues that have come to our attention from the American public, from asset forfeiture to mens rea to a number of issues dealing with police interaction with the community, this is a significant moment in America's history.

We are a nation of laws, and we pride ourselves with understanding the very words of the Declaration of Independence that clearly says that we all are created equal with certain inalienable rights of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The beginning words of the Constitution say that our Founding Fathers--although imperfect in many of the aspects of the Constitution based upon rights not given to women and rights not given to African Americans--did say that they formed this government to create a more perfect Union.

Now, in 2015, we have an opportunity, again, as I said, to assess the criminal justice system in many ways. Let me cite for you some of the challenges that we face. For example, a 16-year-old in New York who was arrested for taking a knapsack--he shouldn't have taken a knapsack--was thrown into Rikers Island and had a $3,000 bail, which he or his family could not pay. He stayed in isolation for 3 years. His case never came before the courts. The lawyers obviously were backlogged, whatever court-appointed lawyer he might have had. During that time, there was abuse, and this youngster suffered. At 19 going on 20, he was finally released, no action taken against him. Tragically, 2 weeks after he was released, this young man committed suicide.

We understand the brain does not mature to its fullest before the age of 24 or 25, and so when you are dealing with teenagers between 18 and 24, you are dealing with kids. You are dealing with individuals who have yet formulated their full judgment.

These incidents, along with the cases of Walter Scott and Freddie Gray, begin to have us question how we make better our law enforcement. As we mourn those who have fallen in duty--and we do, as I have over the years--I recognize that we must give skills training and give more resources for professional development and change the concept that we have forced our law enforcement to be in.

We have forced the concept of warrior versus guardian. Maybe that caused the incident of the gentleman who was in his doorstep in suburban Virginia, right outside of Washington, D.C. I think the case was 3 years ago where the gentleman came to the door. Of course he was having a disagreement with the officer who was at the door, but he wound up dead in his doorstep. Of course the family settled because there was, in essence, an inappropriate use of excessive force and it did not have to happen.

As we work in the Committee on the Judiciary and work with Members, I am looking forward to finding a significant moment. We will be introducing legislation dealing with police accountability--we hope it will draw a number of Members' bipartisan support--using this concept of guardian versus warrior, giving the amount of resources for training, but also giving the necessary equipment that will be helpful, new technology, and a criteria utilized by small departments that will allow them to get a rating of having a police force that meets certain standards to know how to deal with the elderly, to know how to deal with the physically and mentally disabled, how to deal with juveniles, how to deal with women. Certainly we know that bad actors and those who are tending to do us harm, we are ultimately concerned that we have very safe communities.

I hope that as we confront this that the sheer shrillness of dealing with criminal justice will be put aside so that we can studiously get a bill to the President's desk, we can get a bill about youth offenders that I will introduce, a bill about building trust, which means that we don't force communities to use police officers as revenue gatherers, so it is not about how many we stop on the street or how many we give tickets to to provide money to the coffers of our local community. That puts the police sometimes in unnecessary confrontational roles when they could very well be engaging in warnings or other ways of dealing with the community. I would like to enhance PAL, the Police Athletic League, an excellent community-based approach to police and children getting to know each other. Many things can happen.

This is a significant moment that captures the constitutional premise that we want to create a more perfect Union.

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