National Police Week: Blue Lives Matter

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, tonight, my colleagues and I come to the floor of the United States House of Representatives to spotlight and highlight a very special week, a week that brings families and police officers together here in Washington, D.C. It is a week that is called National Police Week where these families and police officers from around the country come and gather to remember those police officers whose lives were tragically taken in the line of duty during the past year, and this happens every year. In that process, we not only remember those lives who were lost in the past year, but we also remember those lives who were lost in all of the years prior to that. Later on, I will talk about a couple of close friends of mine whose lives were taken early in their careers in the King County Sheriff's Office.

I should say that, prior to coming to Congress, I spent 33 years in the King County Sheriff's Office in Seattle, starting in a patrol car, then as a detective, then as a SWAT commander, a hostage negotiator, a precinct commander, and, finally, as a sheriff, then coming here to Congress.

To begin tonight, I honor Chehalis Police Officer Rick Silva and Washington State Trooper Brent Hanger, who both tragically died in the State of Washington in the line of duty.

I begin with Washington State Trooper Brent Hanger.

Trooper Hanger died on August 6, 2015, while investigating a marijuana grow in a small town called Yakima, Washington. He was 47 years old. He had a wife, Lisa, and six children: Emily, Erin, Kailey, Erik, Kyle, and Kevin. Trooper Hanger served with the State Patrol for 17 years, all of which were spent in the State Patrol's District 7, which includes Washington State's Snohomish, Skagit, and Whatcom Counties. Early in his career, in 2000, Trooper Hanger received the Award of Merit from the State Patrol for assisting and saving the life of a suicidal person.

It is one of the things we forget about with regard to police officers. We are really peace officers, and we are there to protect people and keep the peace. The vast majority of us who go into law enforcement enter into law enforcement to protect people and to save lives, and that is what Trooper Hanger did in 2000 on just one occasion that he was recognized for.

I also recognize Chehalis Police Officer Rick Silva.

Rick was 60. He died in Chehalis on June 18, 2015, in Centralia, Washington. He had a wife named Cindy and a daughter named Shannon. From 1986 to 1988, he was a Lewis County corrections officer. From 1988 to 2002, he was an officer with the Lewis County Sheriff's Office; and he was employed, when he passed away, with the Chehalis Police Department. He was a self-taught master fabricator, race car driver, automotive restorer, and carpenter.

Since the first known line of duty death in the year 1791, more than 20,000 U.S. law enforcement officers have made the ultimate sacrifice. A total of 1,439 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty during the past 10 years--an average of one death every 61 hours, or 144 per year. There were 123 law enforcement officers who were killed in the line of duty in 2015. Since the beginning of 2016, 36 law enforcement officers have died in the line of duty--36 this year. So far, the number of firearm-related fatalities is up 50 percent compared to the same time last year. In 2014 alone, there were 15,725 assaults against law enforcement, resulting in 13,824 injuries. Now, we hear sometimes in our own communities about those who lost their lives, but we don't always hear about those who were injured in the line of duty.

The next speaker I will introduce here in a moment is also a career law enforcement officer. He was also a sheriff, a sheriff in Florida, and I am sure that he and I together could trade police stories all night that would illustrate for you, Mr. Speaker, and for others who are listening the danger that one experiences as a law enforcement officer across this country.

I yield to the sheriff, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Nugent).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, Sheriff Nugent served 35 years. I know he looks a lot younger than I do, but he served a couple of years longer than I did.

Sometimes we call people heroes and we don't readily accept those titles because, as the sheriff said, we just want to help. Cops just want to help. They want to help people. They want to serve the community and want to keep people safe.

I am proud to have another Member here tonight who I am going to introduce who has been a staunch supporter of law enforcement since his time in Congress. We actually came here together in 2005, and he happens to be a judge from Texas.

So I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank Judge Poe for his service, too, and for his staunch support of law enforcement officers across the country.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to introduce Mr. Wilson of South Carolina, who has a real understanding of what it means to serve. His family is a family of military service. So he understands the service that law enforcement officers provide across this country as well.

I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Wilson for his support and for being here tonight to help us highlight law enforcement Police Week and remember those who have died in the line of duty and those continuing to serve.

Mr. Speaker, I would now like to introduce Mr. Gowdy from South Carolina, who also has a career in law enforcement and has continued that effort here to do the right thing and protect the American people here in Congress.

I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Gowdy).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Gowdy.

I was going to try to get some courage up to tell one of my stories about my partner who was killed in 1982, but I think I am going to wait and gain my composure.

I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Jolly), who has led one of these Special Orders in the past in honor of police officers and is another staunch supporter of law enforcement across this great Nation.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Jolly for his comments and his strong support of law enforcement over the years. I especially appreciate his comments regarding the partnership between police and community.

The police cannot protect our families and our neighborhoods and our communities alone. The communities can't do it alone. There has to be a partnership there, Mr. Speaker, and that partnership has to be based on trust.

So together, as a nation, in our communities across this great country, we have got to come together, police and communities, for the good of our children and the protection of our neighborhoods and the safety of our country. I think we can accomplish that with dialogue and especially going back to the good old days of community policing and actually visiting and talking with members of the community, as Mr. Gowdy pointed out, a police officer who stopped in his neighborhood, got out of his car and played basketball with the young men and women on the street. I can remember those days myself. I got hurt in a basketball game with some kids on the street, but that is another story.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Barr for his comments and his support.

I yield to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Buck).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. REICHERT. I thank the gentleman for his support and taking time to honor those fallen in the State of Colorado.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. REICHERT. I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Al Green).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. REICHERT. I thank Mr. Green for his support. I think your uncle gave you great advice.

Mr. Speaker, as I stood here tonight and listened to all the other presenters, I came to the realization that there were a lot of people here that might be a lot more articulate about what it means to be a police officer. Even though I have served for 33 years, I found that a lot of words here touched me tonight because it brings back memories of good friends.

I want to tell a brief story related to some topics that were discussed earlier tonight about the opioid epidemic here. Yes, we are concerned about the people who are addicted. We are concerned--and rightly so--about the families who are trying to deal with that addiction and the danger that it presents to the person addicted, the danger it presents to the family, the tragedy it presents to that family and the addicted individual and the community in the entirety.

But sometimes we forget to include the police officer in that group of people that is endangered by this epidemic that has ripped our Nation. They are the first people there. They are the first ones called to a scene where someone might be acting up as a result of being addicted to heroin or some other drug.

I can remember a night. I just want to share this short story so that, Mr. Speaker, you can understand this is something that happens to police officers across this country every day of the year.

I was with a team of officers who were assigned to serve a drug search warrant on an apartment. We were all assigned a room to go to. I kicked in the door and I went to the right to a small bathroom.

When I entered that door and went into the bathroom, there was a young man in the bathroom with a rubber band around his arm and a needle injected in his arm. His eyes were glazed over. He was standing by the toilet.

He saw me come in with my badge over my heart and my gun in my hand. I said: Raise your hands above your head and drop to your knees. He raised his hands, but he didn't go to his knees. He stood there and stared at me for a short time. Eventually, his right hand moved to the right behind a half wall and came out with a gun.

At that moment, I had to make a decision. Every police officer across this Nation has to make a split-second decision: Do I shoot? Is my life in danger? Am I going home to my family? Am I not going home to my family? Is this the time? Those things go through your mind in a millisecond. In the snap of a finger, you have to make a decision.

Something told me I could talk to this young man. And so I continued to talk, and he finally leaned back and dropped the gun in the toilet, fell to his knees, and we handcuffed him and took him to jail.

I share that story to just emphasize the fact that police officers are going through these dangerous situations every day, having to make those decisions. And then, Mr. Speaker, every day after that they second-guess themselves, if they had decided to pull the trigger, and then the community will continue to second-guess.

And, yes, we need to be questioned. And, yes, we need to be held accountable. And, yes, we need to be trained. All of those things are true. But it is so easy to Monday-morning-quarterback.

I had a partner that was killed in 1982. We were tracking down a murder suspect. In the process of that, my partner was ambushed and shot in the chest and killed. He had five sons. They are all grown men now. They grew up without their father.

In 1984, another friend and partner was stabbed and killed with a World War II sword. His name was Michael Rayburn. My partner's name was Sam Hicks. But just a few years before that, Mike Rayburn saved my life.

I was directing traffic in the middle of the night, at 2 o'clock in the morning, on Pacific Highway just south of Seattle. It was a pretty major accident. I had my back turned to the ditch behind me. Deputy Rayburn drove up.

Just at the moment he drove up, somebody jumped out of the ditch. He had a knife in his hand and was running across the lanes of traffic to bury that knife in my back. Mike Rayburn was there just in the nick of time and tackled that man who was about to stab me. Two years later, Mike Rayburn was dead. His kids grew up without their father.

I am here tonight to honor them. I am here tonight to honor every police officer in this country. I am here tonight, Mr. Speaker, to ask people across the Nation to say thank you to the police officers that protect their community, protect their children, and protect their homes each and every day.

I will be there on Sunday at the memorial in front of the Capitol and be with those families. I have held the widows in my arms, as the sheriff. I have held the children and cried. I will be doing that again on Sunday.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source