Philando Castile Shooting

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I come to the Senate floor today to remember those who have been affected by the tragic events in my State and across the country over the last week. I am here today to remember the loss, to share in the grief, and to stand with our community as we seek justice and healing and solutions together.

Last week was a tough week in Minnesota. There have been and there will be a lot of bleak moments, when all anyone can do is to hug their family and their friends and ask why. How can this happen? How can we make sense of the senseless? How can we go on as people and as a community that is hurting so badly?

But amidst all the horror, I also saw hope this weekend. Sunday, I spoke at Pilgrim Baptist Church in St. Paul, as well as Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Minneapolis. When I looked around that room, I saw the horror, the frustration, the anger, but I also saw the hope. Being there with the grieving members of our community gave me that hope because I knew that they supported one another, that their hearts must mend, that the neighborhoods must heal. I literally heard them talk about how the love they had within the walls of that church must go beyond to the greater community.

We have lost so many this week. What can you say to a mother whose precious baby boy--a 2-year-old--is killed in a drive-by shooting while sitting in his father's car in north Minneapolis? And what do you say to that same mother whose precious other child--the little boy's baby sister--was also injured by that gunfire?

What can you say to comfort elementary school children who have suddenly lost that friendly face in the lunchroom who always gave them a smile, a kind word, a healthy snack? There are no words that can take away the pain of losing a beloved son, partner, and friend. Philando Castile was beloved--a ``gentle soul,'' in his mother's words. He loved the kids at his school, and they loved ``Mr. Phil'' right back. He knew all the kids' names. There were more than 500 of them. He learned who had allergies and who might need a little extra help. And, yes, with a little playful nagging, he got them to eat their vegetables. In short, he cared about them, and he let them know it. Everyone knew it. My State's outpouring of grief, especially from his school, and the love and support in the wake of his loss means something.

The loss of that little 2-year-old is also a powerful reminder that being a friend is never a wasted effort--that even the smallest kindness shown to the smallest person makes this world better.

Then there were the five officers lost in Dallas. Officer Brent Thompson had just gotten married a few weeks ago. His bride was a fellow transit officer. Officer Michael Smith served in the Dallas Police Department for 26 years and volunteered as a mentor to at-risk kids. Officer Patrick Zamarripa served three tours of duty in Iraq in the U.S. Navy. The only thing he loved more than the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Cowboys was his 2-year-old daughter, Lincoln.

How about the 21 police officers in St. Paul who were injured Saturday night? There were so many peaceful protests--and there continue to be peaceful protests--involving Black Lives Matter and other groups in our State over Philando Castile's death. That is part of our democracy. That is how we make change. But what happened on Saturday night on Highway 94 was far from a peaceful process. We cannot achieve justice through injustice.

So where do we go from here? We know that nothing we can say will take away the hurt, but here is what we can do to narrow the gap between us:

First, we must pursue justice. When I served for 8 years as Hennepin County attorney, which is the chief prosecutor of our county, the largest county in our State, I always believed that my job--and the principle we would use when we looked at a case--was to convict the guilty and protect the innocent. That is what justice calls us to do. That is why I have joined with other members of the Federal delegation--Senator Franken, Congresswoman McCollum, and Congressman Ellison--in calling for a Federal investigation into Philando Castile's death. We need to understand what happened and how we can prevent this from happening again. Philando, his family, and all those children who loved him deserve nothing less.

Second, we must fight for a criminal justice system that works for everyone. We all know people who have been caught up in a criminal justice system that can be harsh and unfair. It can do the right thing and it can protect victims, but it can also destroy individual people and it can pull families apart. That is why we must pass criminal justice reform. I have long supported important policy changes. My State was one of the first that videotaped interrogations, and that ended up being a good thing, not only for the defendants but actually for our police officers and those seeking convictions. I have supported reforms to the eyewitness process. I have supported body cameras, diversity in hiring, law enforcement resources and training--very important as we go ahead and look at what we should be focused on in the next year--and meaningful, meaningful work between law enforcement and our citizens.

What else do we need? In my mind, we need commonsense gun reform. I was proud to join my colleagues on the Senate floor demanding changes to make our communities safer. One of those changes, in addition to the terror watch list bill, was to make sure we find some kind of consensus on improving background checks. The Senate's failure to pass bipartisan background check legislation has been a big disappointment. Here we had two A-rated NRA Senators that came together. Senator Toomey as well as Senator Manchin came up with a bill that would have closed some loopholes that would have made it safer. We know that States that have those background checks in place have reduced rates of suicides by guns, and they also have reduced rates of domestic homicides. I still remember those Sandy Hook parents in my office advocating for that change in the bill. They knew that wouldn't have saved their babies, but they also knew it was one of the things that could best save lives going forward and could best bring consensus in this Chamber.

From my time as county attorney, I remember those little children lost to violence:

Byron Phillips was a little boy killed on his north Minneapolis front porch. We had to put up billboards in the community saying: If you know who killed me, come forward. Eventually, it worked, and we put the guy in jail.

Tyesha Edwards was killed by a bullet while doing her homework at her kitchen table. Her mom said: Get your homework done, and you can go out with us to the mall. That is how she died. Again, we put the guys that did it in jail, but that is not compensation for what happened to that family.

Americans from across the Nation and across the political spectrum support commonsense proposals. They support commonsense background checks closing the loophole at gun shows by wide margins. In honor of those we have lost in Charleston and Orlando, San Bernardino, Newtown, Aurora, north Minneapolis, and cities across the Nation, I will continue to stand with my colleagues until we take action on these commonsense measures.

I am reminded of President Obama's beautiful words at a service remembering more Americans lost to gun violence--this time in Charleston, SC. He said this:

For too long, we've been blind to the unique mayhem that gun violence inflicts upon this nation. Sporadically, our eyes are open: When eight of our brothers and sisters are cut down in a church basement, 12 in a movie theater, 26 in an elementary school. But I hope we also see the 30 precious lives cut short by gun violence in this country every single day; the countless more whose lives are forever changed--the survivors crippled, the children traumatized and fearful every day as they walk to school, the husband who will never feel his wife's warm touch, the entire communities whose grief overflows every time they have to watch what happened to them happen to some other place.

My friends, we must stem the tide. But we also know that justice in our laws--which means the criminal justice reform that I noted earlier, which means commonsense gun reforms, which means making sure that these cases are investigated and the law is followed no matter what the victims' race or ethnic background or how much money they have--must happen to bring justice to these families. But the other part of this, as I look at our neighborhoods that are affected by this every single day, is economic justice. In the famous words of Dr. Martin Luther King:

We know that it isn't enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn't earn enough money to buy a hamburger and a cup of coffee?

When we see lingering disparities--and ``lingering'' is kind of a nerdy word for what we are talking about here. When we see these disparities of economics, when we see health disparities, when we see far too many families working so hard but still struggling to get ahead, and stubborn achievement gaps in our schools, we know there is so much more work to do. The solutions here are a deep commitment to an economic future for the people that live in our cities, to make sure they have access to the jobs that are starting to open up all over this country, that they are trained--that we look at what is happening in their schools and make sure that the training they get matches jobs that are open. We have jobs all over our State now in technology, in science, in manufacturing and welding, and this is giving those kids hope--not just in community colleges and regular colleges, not just in high school, but in middle school--that they are going to be able to get one of these jobs. That is economic hope. It is about training our kids, keeping them in school, opening the doors of our businesses, big and small, to people of neighborhoods like the one that I was in yesterday in St. Paul.

Finally, we must all work to protect the innocents among us. That is what I started talking about--how we must convict the guilty and protect the innocent, especially our children. Two-year-olds should not be shot and killed on the streets of north Minneapolis. Four-year-olds should not watch a man die in the car seat right in front of them. Nobody should have to explain to a classroom of children why their beloved friend ``Mr. Phil'' doesn't feed them lunch anymore. We are better than this.

I recently visited a mosque in Minneapolis and heard the story of a Muslim family who had gone out to eat at a restaurant--two parents, two kids. The parents, by the way, had been through 9/11 and understood what had happened then but have been able to live in our community, where we have the largest Somali population in our country, without a lot of discrimination, without a lot of hateful words even after 9/11. But not this time. They were in the restaurant with their little kids, and a guy walked by and said: You four go home. You go home to where you came from.

The little girl looked up at her mom and said: Mom, I don't want to go home. You said we could eat dinner out tonight. I don't want to go home and eat dinner.

Those are the innocent words of a child. As sweet and funny as it is, think about this: She knows no other home. She didn't even know what that guy was talking about because she knows no other home, because Minnesota is her home, because the United States of America is her home.

America is better than angry words directed at strangers in a restaurant. America is better than babies being shot on the street in broad daylight. America is better than Philando Castile losing his life. And America is better than throwing concrete chunks at police officers in St. Paul and five Dallas cops being taken from their beat forever.

So I am here today to stand with the people who are not satisfied with how things are--the people who are ready to work to make things better, the people who are the helpers and the peacemakers. Together, we can make this world a better place, and more just.

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