[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
VICTIMS OF VIOLENT CRIME IN CHICAGO
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COMMITTEE FORUM
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2023
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Serial No. 118-46
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Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via: http://judiciary.house.gov
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U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
53-700 WASHINGTON : 2023
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
JIM JORDAN, Ohio, Chair
DARRELL ISSA, California JERROLD NADLER, New York, Ranking
KEN BUCK, Colorado Member
MATT GAETZ, Florida ZOE LOFGREN, California
MIKE JOHNSON, Louisiana SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas
ANDY BIGGS, Arizona STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
TOM McCLINTOCK, California HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, Jr.,
TOM TIFFANY, Wisconsin Georgia
THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky ADAM SCHIFF, California
CHIP ROY, Texas ERIC SWALWELL, California
DAN BISHOP, North Carolina TED LIEU, California
VICTORIA SPARTZ, Indiana PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington
SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin J. LUIS CORREA, California
CLIFF BENTZ, Oregon MARY GAY SCANLON, Pennsylvania
BEN CLINE, Virginia JOE NEGUSE, Colorado
LANCE GOODEN, Texas LUCY McBATH, Georgia
JEFF VAN DREW, New Jersey MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania
TROY NEHLS, Texas VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas
BARRY MOORE, Alabama DEBORAH ROSS, North Carolina
KEVIN KILEY, California CORI BUSH, Missouri
HARRIET HAGEMAN, Wyoming GLENN IVEY, Maryland
NATHANIEL MORAN, Texas BECCA BALINT, Vermont
LAUREL LEE, Florida
WESLEY HUNT, Texas
RUSSELL FRY, South Carolina
CHRISTOPHER HIXON, Majority Staff Director
AMY RUTKIN, Minority Staff Director & Chief of Staff
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C O N T E N T S
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Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Page
OPENING STATEMENTS
The Honorable Jim Jordan, Chair of the Committee on the Judiciary
from the State of Ohio......................................... 1
The Honorable Andy Biggs, Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime and
Federal Government Surveillance from the State of Arizona...... 3
WITNESSES
Gianno Caldwell, Founder, Caldwell Strategic Consulting
Oral Testimony................................................. 5
Lt. John Garrido III, Retired Detective, Chicago Police
Department
Oral Testimony................................................. 8
Prepared Testimony............................................. 10
Officer Carlos Yanez, Jr., Retired Officer, Chicago Police
Department
Oral Testimony................................................. 12
Prepared Testimony............................................. 15
VICTIMS OF VIOLENT CRIME IN CHICAGO
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Tuesday, September 26, 2023
House of Representatives
Committee on the Judiciary
Washington, DC
The Forum met, pursuant to notice, at 9:05 a.m. Central, in
Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago Lodge #7, 1412 W. Washington
Blvd. #3, Chicago, Illinois, the Hon. Jim Jordan [Chair of the
Committee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Jordan, Gaetz, Biggs, Fitzgerald,
Bentz, Cline, Kiley, and Lee.
Also present: Representative Miller of Illinois.
Chair Jordan. The Committee will come to order. We welcome
everyone to today's Forum on victims of violent crime in
Chicago.
The Chair now recognizes the gentlelady from Illinois to
lead us all in the pledge of allegiance.
All. I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States
of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one
Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for
all.
Chair Jordan. Good morning. I want to thank you all for
being here today.
The Chair is now recognized for an opening statement.
Today's forum is about our commitment to justice and
keeping communities safe. In recent years, we have all seen how
the radical left have sought to undermine public safety in the
name of criminal justice reform. The left has implemented pro-
criminal policies that have allowed dangerous criminals to
remain on the street. The left has attacked law enforcement and
sought to defunding the police, and then when crime goes up,
they act shocked, and when cities become less safe, they act
surprised.
Earlier this year, we traveled to New York City and heard
directly from victims of violent crime. We heard about the
consequences of soft-on-crime policies implemented by rogue
prosecutors and radical policymakers in New York City.
Today, we are in the great city of Chicago, the second in
our series on violent crime in major urban areas to hear
directly from victims. Thank you to our witnesses for your
willingness to be here and thank you for sharing your stories.
Innocent people in Chicago are victimized by a justice
system that cares more about political correctness than
punishing the criminals who harm them and their families. For
11 years, 11 years, Chicago has led the country in homicide and
has only gotten worse under State's Attorney Kim Foxx.
According to an official report by the Chicago Police
Department, crime in Chicago overall has increased during the
last few years by nearly 20 percent. Theft is also a huge
problem in Chicago, which saw a 114 percent increase in car
thefts, and a 32 percent increase in other thefts between 2018-
2022.
We know Chicago experienced yet another summer with high
rates of violence. Memorial Day weekend started with 11 people
killed and 53 others, including two toddlers wounded in
shootings across the city. Over Labor Day weekend 10 were
killed and 34 more were wounded, including a six-year-old boy
struck by a bullet in his thigh while he was at his home. We
know what happened this past weekend. Thirty individuals shot
this past weekend.
The rise in violent crime in Chicago has been coupled with
attacks on the men and women who wear the uniform, on our great
law enforcement officers. In 2021, 76 Chicago police officers
were shot in the line of duty. Two officers tragically have
already been killed this year. The brave men and women in law
enforcement deserve better.
Chicago leaders have argued Ms. Fox's policies on
nonprosecution and eliminating cash bail are keeping too many
criminals on the streets and making this city more dangerous.
Her presumption is not to prosecute. Remember the violent riots
back in 2020 where there were charges of assault, mob action,
and aggravated battery to a police officer? Ms. Fox told her
office that there should be a presumption against proceeding
unless there was a body or a Dash Cam footage available, or if
a police officer was the complainant.
A rogue prosecutor's decision not to prosecute crimes is
made even worse when the legislature passes its pro-criminal
policies that they did just recently with the so-called SAFE-T
Act. This law abolished bail, implemented arrest and release
policies for policing, limited when defendants could be deemed
flight risks and prevented police from arresting nonviolent
trespassers. The result: Sixty-three percent of Chicagoans now
do not feel safe in their city.
By downplaying surging crime and denying victims justice,
the leaders of this city are failing their citizens. I mean,
you stop to think about it. First, it was defunding the police,
the former mayor, then it is the SAFE-T Act, and then it is a
prosecutor who won't put the bad guys--won't prosecute the bad
guys. All that leads to the situation we see today.
A former Cook County prosecutor, 25-year veteran of the
office resigned last summer saying he had zero confidence in
the prosecutors' office. This level of crime spills into every
aspect of daily life in Chicago. A local pharmacy chose to open
two aisles for shoppers while everything else is kept hidden
and only bringing out items that the shoppers request. The
pharmacy took such drastic steps because retail theft and the
violence that comes with it, is just too great in Chicago.
We want to also extend a special thank you to the Chicago
Fraternal Order of Police. John Catanzara, thank you for the
work you do, the FOP president. I saw John just--right here in
the front. Right there on the front. Thank you so much. You
guys have been tremendous hosts. We appreciate all you have
done to help us set this up today, and we support you, and we
thank you for serving our country every day. Thank you. I look
forward to our conversation.
Before we get to our witnesses, I want to ask the Chair of
the Subcommittee on Crime, the gentleman from Arizona, Mr.
Biggs, for an opening statement.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, everyone, for being here. I thank our witnesses
for being here to testify today and our Members. Thank you to
the FOP for opening your doors and providing this wonderful
facility for us.
I want to, also, let everyone know that this is an official
Committee Hearing, Committee Hearing as if we were in
Washington, DC, in the House of Representatives. It is
official. Every Member of this Committee knew about it and was
invited to be here and has a duty, quite frankly, to be here,
but you will notice that, unfortunately, some of my colleagues
across the aisle decided they didn't want to come and hear
these important witnesses and what they have to testify and
consider this very critical and important issue, and I am
saddened for that. I am saddened about that.
I will tell you that the Crime Subcommittee has worked hard
on these issues and let me just give you an idea. We have
worked on--we have had hearings on retail crime because that is
exploding in cities. Speaking of exploding, the explosion of
fentanyl across our country. It affects everyone, small cities
and large cities. In San Francisco, for instance, every day
three people die from fentanyl overdose.
We talked about border crime. We actually had a field
hearing in Cochise County, Arizona, because of what is
happening across our border, and it explodes and also impacts
everything, including here in Chicago you are impacted by the
illegal migration that is taking place. Again, at that field
hearing, an official hearing, not one Democrat showed up. What
a shame.
Last week, we had a hearing for victims of sex trafficking,
which America is the biggest sex trafficking, and our Federal
Government is the biggest logistic arm for the cartels that are
bringing in sex trafficking, facilitating sex trafficking. What
a shame.
We will have a series of hearings and markup a number of
bills in Legislation dealing with all of these issues
commencing Thursday and going regularly for the remainder of
this year.
I thank the Chair, Mr. Jordan, for his leadership on this
issue and for bringing us here to Chicago, this great city.
On Sunday, Breitbart News reported at least 30 shootings in
Chicago over the weekend with three fatalities. One victim, an
86-year-old man was shot around 10 a.m. on Saturday while
retrieving something from his truck. The second fatality
occurred at 12:40 a.m., Sunday, about two miles from where we
are sitting, where a 40-year-old was shot in the chest. The
third fatality occurred at 10:45 a.m. The 24-year-old victim
was sitting in his vehicle when another vehicle pulled up
alongside. Two men exited and open fired, killing the man.
The Chicago Sun-Times has reported at least 433 people
killed in Chicago from January 1-September 24.
Crime is also pushing businesses out of Chicago. Walmart
has permanently closed one half of their locations in Chicago
in recent months. AT&T, Gap, Banana Republic, Uniqlo, Macy's,
and Verizon have all closed locations in Chicago.
Yesterday a member of my staff went to grab a few items
from Walgreen's located across the street from the Art
Institute of Chicago around the corner from the iconic cloud
gate sculpture in Grant Park. A sign indicated the store will
be closing permanently within a month, and aisle-by-aisle every
product, including deodorant and toothpaste were behind locked
cases to prevent the retail crime.
These soft-on-crime policies undermine the rule of law and
limit the freedom of everyday people. Law-abiding, everyday
people live in fear, and that fear results in limits on the
ability to travel, engage in commerce, and to associate one
with another. These policies emasculate law enforcement. They
hand over control of a once great American city to violent
criminals.
When I speak about this, I am thinking of what really makes
a community a community. It is the ability to trust each other,
and that seems to be gone in so many cities. Tragedy. It is a
tragedy. We look at our citizens and we say, how could this be?
How could it be? It is because of failure of leadership.
I predict to you that we, as a Nation, if we continue this
path of lawlessness and a disregard for the rule of law, we
will lose our freedoms. To have freedom, you must adhere to the
rule of law.
I look forward to our witnesses' testimony today.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I yield back.
Chair Jordan. I thank the gentleman. He was spot on.
We now will introduce today's witnesses. Mr. Gianno
Caldwell. Mr. Caldwell is a political analyst and founder of
Caldwell Strategic Consulting, which provides strategic advice
and consulting services related to public affairs.
On June 24, 2022, 15 months ago, his younger brother
Christian was murdered in Chicago. Police determined that he
was not the target of the shooting, but was simply in the wrong
place at the wrong time.
We have seen you, Mr. Caldwell, out there as an outspoken
advocate for stopping this surge of violent crime we see across
the country, and we appreciate that work and we appreciate you
being here today.
Mr. John Garrido, III. Mr. Garrido served with the Chicago
Police Department for more than 30 years, retiring as
lieutenant in 2022. During his career, he worked in the patrol
division, narcotics, violent crime, and homicide. We appreciate
you being here today, and the 30 years of service you gave to
this town, and you gave to law enforcement.
Finally, Mr. Carlos Yanez, Jr., Mr. Yanez was shot several
times in the head and shoulder during a traffic stop in August
2021. While serving as a Chicago police officer, Mr. Yanez's
partner was tragically killed during this incident. After being
shot, Yanez's doctors told him that he would never move the
left side of his body again, but he regained movement after
extensive physical therapy.
We appreciate your service. We appreciate your perseverance
and your dedication to overcoming the tragic, tragic shooting
that you had to endure.
We welcome all our witnesses and thank them for appearing
today. Please know that we have any written statements that you
shared with us ahead of this forum, so accordingly, we ask that
you summarize your testimony in five minutes if you can, but we
are going to be lenient with that. If you have to go 7-8
minutes, you go right ahead. This is that important.
We are going to start with Mr. Caldwell and then work down
the line. So, Mr. Caldwell, you are recognized for whatever
amount of time you want to take.
STATEMENT OF GIANNO CALDWELL
Mr. Caldwell. Good morning. Thank you, Chair Jordan. Thank
you, Chair Biggs. A special thank you to Congressman Burgess
Owens who has been working behind the scenes with me since last
year to ensure that I can be before this body.
My name is Gianno Caldwell. I was born and raised on the
South side of Chicago. I got involved in public service when I
was 14 years old working for my local alderman, because I
actually believed my community in Chatham could be saved from
violence, crime, and drugs.
I eventually moved with the same goals in mind to
Washington, DC, and became a political consultant and a
national media analyst, and TV personality.
Before I begin, I truly wish that it was not my place to be
before you today, but I believe I have no choice, no choice
because of the countless people in my hometown, including my
own family, who are innocent victims of murder and violent
crime. Those who are shot, robbed, carjacked, or even worse,
those who had multiple people in their family murdered in
Chicago. Those voices scream out for justice.
Many of the elected officials here in Chicago have ignored
those voices, and it has come at a great price for the people
of the city, not just in blood, but also in treasure and
opportunity as multibillion dollar businesses, like Ken
Griffin's Citadel, justifiably fled Chicago, and he took
millions of dollars in tax revenue with him.
We know this has happened and due part to the policies of
the Cook County prosecutor, Chicago most recent mayors, the
Governor, other politicians throughout the State of Illinois.
These officials have recklessly ignored the people they were
elected to represent, and as a result, bodies, mostly Black
bodies are littered throughout the streets of Chicago.
I, unfortunately, understand the pain of thousands of
victims whose families have been destroyed. On June 24th of
last year, I received a call that my innocent, my innocent
teenage baby brother Christian had been murdered, shot down in
the street by a stranger when a group of men stepped out of a
black SUV and fired into a crowd on 114th and South Vincennes
Street.
The police have repeatedly said that my brother was not the
target, that he just happened to be at the wrong place at the
wrong time. In Chicago, being at the wrong place at the wrong
time could be sleeping in your bed and a bullet comes through
your window, or in the back seat of a car at a McDonald's
drive-through, as seven-year-old Jaslyn Adams was murdered.
Living in Chicago should not come with a death sentence,
but it does for too many Chicagoans. My brother Christian had
the potential to do well in life. I still remember the day when
he begged me to take him on a college tour out of State when he
was just 16 years old, and we went; but Christian will never
have the opportunity to go to college or to get married, to
have kids, or to build a career.
So many other youths in Chicago have experienced the same
reality. I refuse to capitulate to the idea that Christian had
just become another Chicago statistic, one of the hundreds of
homicides in Chicago 2022.
There is an abundance of potential in Chicago among our
youth and old alike. Unfortunately, much of that potential lies
in graveyards across our city. Chicago recently had the highest
number of homicides in more than a quarter of a century. As of
today, 2023, it is on pace to join the previous two years as
one of the most violent years in our city's history.
From the moment I learned my brother Christian was
murdered, I felt defeated. Since my younger sister Mia called
me on June 24th, screaming into the phone, ``Christian is
gone,'' I felt a giant void in my heart. Never had I made room
for the thought or possibility that someone so close in my life
would be stolen so violently, but that is naive, I suppose.
On the same day my brother was killed, a five-month-year-
old girl by the name of Cecelia was murdered in a drive-by
shooting while sitting in the back seat of a car with her
family.
Chicago is an active war zone. This is not hyperbole. It is
the people who are afraid to leave their homes to walk to and
from work, to walk anywhere in this city. Would this same fear,
would these same murders, be accepted in the suburbs?
Absolutely not.
The soft-on-crime policies that many of you know about here
are prosecutors like Kim Foxx who refuses to prosecute,
decriminalization of offenses, laws like the SAFE-T Act, which
ends cash bail and allow criminals back on the street to commit
more crime, and the no-chase policy, which constrains the
police from doing their jobs. Policies pushed by the Cook
County prosecutor and current and previous mayors have proved
to be a death sentence for the people of the city of Chicago.
What started off as, perhaps, a noble cause for criminal
justice reform has become justice for the criminal. It is our
police who have been handcuffed, as criminals no longer live in
fear of arrest or prosecution. When you can steal at-will, when
you can drive away from a police stop, the streets become
lawless. Murder, as many like my family know too well, is close
behind.
The elected officials here have systematically endangered
the lives of all Chicagoans, but especially those of color, the
marginalized who they claim to care about the most. Most shot
and murdered in Chicago are Black men. According to the Chicago
police, African Americans, including my brother, made up of 80
percent of the murder victims in Chicago in 2022. For the
record, Black people make up only 29 percent of the city's
population.
We need help. Congress must use the power of the purse to
place restrictions on the funding received by local governments
to ensure elected officials are focused on what should be their
No. 1 priority, the protection of its citizens. Federal dollars
are used effectively for natural disasters, from storms to
pandemics. It is time to use those same resources for manmade
disasters: Providing funding for local law enforcement agencies
to help hire and train more officers with the latest crime-
fighting techniques, support programs that address the root
cause of crime, job training, education, and other social
services to help people in at-risk communities.
As small as it sounds, the Federal Government can help
provide some special funding for funerals, as innocent people
being killed are those who need such help the most. Let the
world know how many are buried in our communities here. Pass
legislation that supports community policing, which emphasizes
building much-needed relationships between law enforcement
officers and the communities they serve.
The First Step Act, a law that I lobbied for personally,
provides funding for programs that help people who have been
incarcerated successfully reintegrate into society. Congress
could increase funding for the Second Chance Act to help reduce
recidivism rates.
Finally, Congress and the Federal Government should employ
the full use of the FBI to help clear our murder cases in our
cities. When I first spoke to the detective handling my
brother's case, he told me he had other priorities and more
cases had come in since my brother was murdered. I have since
been told Chicago alone needs 2,000 new detectives to handle
the current caseload. It wasn't until I angrily went on Chicago
national media that the detective took me seriously.
I had access to a platform most families do not. Even then,
it didn't last long. Soon police weren't returning my calls,
and they weren't, even though there had been someone arrested.
My brother's murder has not yet been solved.
Ultimately, I believe the Chicago Police Department has
failed my family, and countless others. Reforms within the
Chicago Police Department are needed. I have had to go through
hell in an attempt to get justice for my brother. I am now
working directly with the FBI Chicago field office. How many of
the hundreds of murderers have that same opportunity?
My love for Chicago is infinite and unconditional. It will
always be home to me. I first got involved in public service
when I was just 14, volunteering for my local alderman every
day after school like it was a job, a decision which set me on
the path to public service to help a city I love so much. My
family and no family should go through what I experienced this
past year.
We have more resources than any Nation in history. Why
aren't we using those resources for people who need it most?
Why are we allowing our cities, from Chicago, New York, Los
Angeles, Baltimore, Oakland, Philadelphia, and San Francisco to
remain dangerous kill zones while migrants are traveling from
across the world to Chicago for a sanctuary city status? There
continues to be no sanctuary and no peace for the very people
who call Chicago home their entire lives.
Today I am here to demand justice and accountability not
just for my baby brother, but the thousands of other Chicagoans
whom we may never know their names. I implore you to exercise
your full power and resources. Christian's death is senseless.
It is a senseless loss, but it doesn't have to be a meaningless
one. Please make him one of our last victims and help us save
the people of Chicago.
Thank you.
Chair Jordan. Thank you. Well done. Thank you, Mr.
Caldwell. We appreciate that. We appreciate the tragedy your
family has had to deal with and what you have had to go
through. So, thank you for being here.
Mr. Caldwell. Thank you.
Chair Jordan. Officer Yanez, you are recognized, and you
can take as much time as you want as well.
STATEMENT OF OFFICER CARLOS YANEZ
Officer Yanez. Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Chair and the esteemed Members on the
House Committee on the Judiciary. I am disabled Chicago Police
Officer, Carlos Yanez, Jr., star #16022. Thank you for this
opportunity to be heard and address this very important forum
that hopefully brings light to the failings of some of our
leadership and our elected officials that have created so many
victims of violent crimes in Chicago. We all have seen the
tragedies resulting from the violent crime wave that has swept
through Chicago and the victims who have to live with the pain
of it every day, including myself.
I am blessed to be speaking before you all today after what
happened to my partners and I on the night of August 7, 2021.
While conducting a traffic stop, a repeat offender fired on us
with a firearm acquired by a straw purchaser without remorse or
hesitation. A straw purchaser is somebody who purchases a
firearm for someone who is prohibited by law from possessing
one. Killing one of Chicago's finest police officers, my
partner and friend, Ella Grace French.
I was shot a total of five times, four of which were in the
head. I lost my right eye, some hearing in both ears. I also
have tinnitus in my right ear, as well as partially paralyzed
on the left side of my body. I almost didn't survive my
injuries.
It was my dream to become a Chicago police officer for as
long as I can remember. Then in August 2014, my calling became
a reality. I started the Chicago Police Academy. I was then
assigned to the 7th District, also known as Englewood, where I
spent most of my career. I had the honor of learning and
working among some of the greatest officers and supervisors who
became family. To see their commitment to serve their community
and to respond to dangerous situations without hesitation every
day gave me even more pride to wear the badge.
Under Mayor Lightfoot's administration, the department
disbanded gang, gun, and saturation teams and combined them
into what is now known as community safety team, created to
protect residents from escalating violence due to the riots of
2020. With all the policies and procedures put into place,
officers find themselves with their hands tied behind their
back.
Being an officer is stressful enough, but now it seems like
there is a witch hunt after officers unnecessarily. Even after
Ella Grace French's passing, COPA disciplined her for a search
warrant, and the only thing that she was seen doing on her body
camera was assisting a woman. This made me sick to my stomach.
COPA continues to serve suspension days to officers like candy
on Halloween.
Cook County has its own issues under Kim Foxx's
administration. I have never heard of so many State's attorneys
resigning or transferring to other counties, refusing to no
longer work under her.
Cook County has become a revolving door. Officers continue
to lock up violent offenders, but then we find them back on the
streets committing even more violent crimes, including murder.
I just hope we elect someone that is going to demand
accountability this next term.
I understand this position is not easy, but we have
criminals fleeing suburban police departments and questioning
if they are in Cook County because they know there will be less
repercussions for their actions in Cook County versus
surrounding counties. Let me give you an example. Several
offenders in possession of a stolen vehicle and firearms
committing numerous armed robberies throughout the city and
someone is shot, or worse, killed.
The only person who pulled the trigger is charged with
first-degree murder. The others will not even though in the act
of committing a forcible felony someone was killed. It used to
be all parties involved would be charged with the highest
charge possible.
As for making stricter gun laws, we, in Illinois, already
have one of the strictest gun laws that only law-abiding
citizens follow. The more laws you put into place is only going
to up the price of firearms on the street that straw purchasers
are selling. I say we enforce the laws that we have on
individuals that are illegally in possession of a firearm and
make it a minimum of three years in jail automatically.
Straw purchasers should be charged the same as offenders
who pull the trigger. It is time to stop coddling criminals and
holding them accountable for their actions. Only then will they
stop and think before they carjack, rob, shoot, or kill a law-
abiding citizen.
Certainly, we have many other issues contributing to many
victims of violent crimes in Chicago. I pray this Committee and
everyone listening hears this testimony I have given to you
today, and takes the proper actions needed to address these
issues.
Thank you Members of the House Committee on the Judiciary
for allowing me to present my testimony and give you the
perspective as a Chicago police officer, and as a victim of
violent crime.
God bless all the officers doing their job around the
country and be safe. God bless you all.
[The prepared statement of Officer Yanez follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chair Jordan. Officer, thank you. We appreciate your
inspiring story as well.
Lieutenant Garrido, you are recognized for five minutes or
a few more if you would like. Go right ahead.
STATEMENT OF LIEUTENANT JOHN GARRIDO
Lt. Garrido. I want to thank you all for giving us the
opportunity to shine a light on what is happening here in the
city of Chicago.
I am here today to discuss the adverse effects of politics
on law enforcement in Chicago. While law enforcement and
politics should operate in distinct spheres, their intersection
severely undermines the efficiency and the credibility of our
police force.
When politicians prioritize ideological goals over
evidence-based practices, it puts our officers in a difficult
position. They become pawns in a larger political game, forced
to enforce laws and policies that may not necessarily serve the
best interest of our community and public safety.
Political agendas also heavily impact how resources are
allocated in our department. The Defund the Police movement has
had dire consequences. The result, a police department that is
both underfunded and understaffed, compromising our ability to
serve and protect.
We often hear that the silent majority supports the police,
yet unfortunately, our silent majority here in Chicago is
asleep at the wheel. Despite having over 1.5 million registered
voters here in Chicago, nearly one million stayed home during
the last mayoral election, and those numbers happen again and
again, over and over every election.
The result is allowing a radical minority elected
politicians with agendas that don't serve the broader
community's interest. We have a mayor that actually scolds
reporters for demonizing children when asking questions about
the mobs of teens that regularly rampage throughout our
downtown business district, destroying property, and stealing
anything they can get their hands on.
Lack of voter interest has given us legislators that
changed the threshold for felony theft from $300-$500, and then
they gave us Kim Foxx, who increased it from $500-$1,000. So,
as long as you steal something that is under $1,000, you are
not going to get charged with a felony in Cook County.
The Illinois State legislators also passed the 800-page
SAFE-T Act in the early hours of the morning with little to no
discussion whatsoever. They passed this Act, and it gave us no
cash bail that just went into effect last week. On the first
day of no cash bail last week, individuals charged with violent
crimes were released without any restrictions. Two people were
charged with robbery, and a guy was accused of punching a
Chicago police officer in the face, and they went home without
restrictions, and there was no request by the prosecutor for a
detention hearing.
Another offender was sent home without any restrictions
after being accused of attacking four police officers and
sending two to the hospital. Yet, again, the prosecutor's
office did not ask for any detention hearing.
Chicago politicians also often make sweeping
generalizations that don't reflect the complexities of law
enforcement. These same politicians publicly refer to our
police department as systemically racist. This not only
undermines the public trust, but also affects officers' morale
and effectiveness.
Constant political interference has had a detrimental
impact. In just the first 100 days since Mayor Johnson was
sworn into office on May 15, 2023, we have had over 200
homicides, 900 people have been shot, 2,500 robberies, 5,000
stolen cars, 2,000 burglaries, and 300 carjackings.
Since January 2020, almost 15,000 people have been shot in
the city of Chicago, and almost 3,000 have been murdered. The
problem is it has become so normalized here that those numbers
aren't even shocking to us anymore, and they are not even
shocking to the general public.
Department policies, lack of manpower, and Illinois laws
have impacted our ability to make arrests as well. Dropping
over 83 percent from 225,000 arrests in 2006 to the last few
years, we have been averaging about 38,000 arrests per year. A
significant drop.
Catalytic converter thieves are now armed, and they are
shooting at homeowners and residents that confront them.
Carjackers are getting younger and younger. Most of them are
under the age of 18 years old. As a matter of fact, they just
arrested four a few days ago. One was as young as 12 years old.
Officers are retiring and resigning at alarming rates. We
are currently over 2,000 officers short on the Chicago Police
Department, and of the 1,100 officers that left last year, 350
of them were resignations, which used to be unheard of here,
and those resignations, the majority of them, are lateral
transfers. So, they are not leaving law enforcement. They are
leaving Chicago law enforcement.
Officers are second-guessing themselves. With a job that
requires you to make split-second decisions, second-guessing
yourself can be a devastating mistake. One example was an
officer who was fighting with an offender on PCP. He was able
to overcome her and repeatedly bang her head against the
concrete while her partners and other officers tried to taze
him and tried to subdue him.
They subsequently took him in custody, but not before she
sustained massive head injuries and permanent brain damage. The
one thing that she said afterward was she thought she was going
to die, and she knew that she should shoot him, but she didn't
do it. She chose not to because she didn't want her family and
the department to go through the scrutiny that would be made
public the next day on the news.
It is not just laws that make our communities unsafe. These
elected officials have discarded experience and used race and
gender to select the leaders of our department. The last
superintendent, David Brown, was probably the worst of all. He
brought us scarecrow policing, excessive canceled days off that
exhausted our officers, politically motivated punishments and
penalties for minor infractions, and promotion after promotion
of inexperienced officers based solely on their gender and the
color of their skin.
We have people now in this department that have actually
gone from the rank of sergeant to deputy chief in 10 months or
they have gone from sergeant to commander in less than two
months, and they haven't been given the opportunity to learn
their roles in those positions before they move on to the next
rank, which not only impacts morale in the department, but also
impacts the quality of leadership.
Probably the worst statistic of all is our police suicide
rate. The national average for law enforcement is 30 percent
above the national average. Here in Chicago, it is 60 percent
above the national average. We usually average about two to
three officers a year that take their lives. Last year seven
took their lives.
Chicago and Illinois politicians have come together to
create a toxic work environment like we have never experienced
before. These policies and legislation have made our
communities less safe and made it even more dangerous to be a
Chicago police officer.
We can't afford to let the silent majority sit quietly
anymore, and I hope with hearings like this and repeatedly
speaking about it, that hopefully we can get the word out that
elections have consequences, and they need to start paying
attention to who they are voting for and who they are putting
in office because the consequences so far have been
devastating.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Lieutenant Garrido follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chair Jordan. Thank you, Lieutenant.
When you let bad guys stay on the street, you shouldn't be
surprised when you get more crime. When you defunded the
police, you shouldn't be surprised when you get more crime.
When you pass legislation that ends cash bail, you shouldn't be
surprised when you get more crime. When you do all those
things, you shouldn't be surprised that we have, what, a 1,700
police officer shortage in this city. That is what left wing
policies have done.
We have got a short video we want to show that shows how it
plays out on the street, which you all have talked about and
all experienced in a personal and firsthand way. So, if we
could play that video and then we will get right to the
Members' questions.
[Video shown.]
Chair Jordan. We will now recognize the gentleman from
Arizona.
Just so you know, if any of you need a break, just let us
know and we will take a break, but we are going to proceed with
five-minute questions from each of our Members. Like I said, if
you need a break, just let us know, and we will be happy to
take a break.
The gentleman from Arizona is recognized for five minutes.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Let's start with you, Officer Yanez. One of the things you
said is you called on enforcement of the laws, and that
presupposes that your district attorneys and your prosecution
is not enforcing laws. Can you expand on that for a moment?
Officer Yanez. Sure, I can. Yes, I can, Chair.
We have criminals. Like I said, it is a revolving door. We
have individuals that are committing countless acts of crime,
violent crimes, and they are just being released, and they are
just getting multiple probation sentences.
As an officer on the job, we were arresting numerous
offenders that were charged with--convicted of murder and
released within a 6-7-year period, which was ridiculous, and it
is just terrible.
Mr. Biggs. They re-offended.
Officer Yanez. They were arrested for firearms, possession
of firearms. So, we have a convicted murderer in possession of
a firearm.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
Lieutenant Garrido, the numbers that you were citing are
just staggering, and you talked on it, but I want you to talk
about specifically the second-guessing that officers undergo
because of the hostility, if you will, toward officers who are
making decisions in the split second that affects life and
death.
Lt. Garrido. Well, it is happening because of the way
officers are treated, the way that they are treated after an
incident occurs. You have got situations where, like I said,
officers have to make split-second decisions, and they are
immediately scrutinized. They are attacked. They are put on
desk duty for supposed to be 90 days. We have had some officers
that have been put on desk duty for as much as two years, and
other officers come in every day to work, and they see that
officer sitting there, and they realize, OK, that could be me
next.
We see other officers that are actually threatened with
criminal charges, or we see them actually get where they try to
fire them.
Mr. Biggs. So, that impacts the morale, but that also
impacts the safety of the citizens because of the morale.
Lt. Garrido. Because it is going to make officers hesitate,
right. You are going to have officers that don't want to get
fired. They don't want to go to jail for maybe, possibly an
innocent mistake, and when you are having to weigh all that
stuff out in a split-second decision, that is tough to do.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
Mr. Caldwell, you are a native Chicagoan. How do you think
these policies have affected the changes you have seen in the
safety of the community you grew up in?
Mr. Caldwell. Well, I think we just saw it all on tape, and
I have heard my voice in that tape multiple times. I have got
to tell you, when you handcuff the police, what do you expect?
Lawlessness. That is what tends to happen. We saw our Chicago
police handcuffed. We have seen them demoralized by previous
mayors, and we continue to see that, I believe, under Brandon
Johnson.
They have a policy called this no-chase policy where
officers aren't allowed to chase a suspect in their car without
calling in to their supervisor, or you can't chase them on
foot. Criminals know this. So, what do you think they are going
to do? They are going to take advantage of every opportunity to
commit more crime, and the politicians here seemingly don't get
it, and it has become problematic for everyone.
As I mentioned before, every community in Chicago has been
impacted by this, but especially for a lot of the politicians
that run the State of Illinois and the city of Chicago, the
folks that they seemingly care a lot about are the Black and
Brown folks who are taking the brunt of the pain, the
murderers. Things need to change here quickly.
Mr. Biggs. Each of you can comment on this. It is something
that all of you have alluded to, and it is the ideological
preference over actually providing real safety to the
community, and I will start with you, Mr. Caldwell, and then
work on down, please.
Mr. Caldwell. Would you repeat your question, please?
Mr. Biggs. Yes. I want you to expand on this notion of how
the ideological or political priorities of those who are in
political leadership actually undermine, ultimately, safety. In
other words, they have placed their political ideology over the
safety of the community in which they are charged to ensure.
Mr. Caldwell. We have seen the seed of that through the no-
bail laws, so the cash bail. We saw in the First Step Act--not
the First Step Act. I am sorry. With the SAFE-T Act, with that
initial, original bill, second-degree murder, nondetainable
offense. Arson, nondetainable offense. Many offenses you would
think we want to put these folks away for a very long time.
Nondetainable offense. It has been a seed that has started
across the country and one I think--because we haven't really
seen much yet because the implementation of that law just
started.
I am believing, just based on just pure logic and common
sense, that this is going to make matters much worse. So, where
we are in Chicago right now where you can be downtown Chicago,
be robbed, killed, whatever the case may be, we are really
entering Gotham City, based on the law that just got
implemented.
Mr. Biggs. Mr. Yanez.
Officer Yanez. I have seen it firsthand under Mayor
Lightfoot's administration when she disbanded all the gang and
saturation and gun teams. It made a huge impact. You had
veteran officers that knew what they were doing, experienced in
what they did, and specialized in what they did. They knew the
streets. They knew the offenders, because it is always the same
offender. The community that I worked in, it is beautiful.
Englewood is beautiful. Most of the criminals don't live in
Englewood. They just travel there, and they are repeat
offenders.
It is terrible to see a beautiful community that is
affected. When she started this community safety team, you had
experienced officers that didn't want to--they felt
unappreciated, and, as we said, the morale just went out the
door. So, you had experienced officers that just decided to go
back because there was too much liability on the officers doing
their job.
When you are chasing offenders with guns things happen bad,
and like others have said, you don't want to be put in that
position. You don't want your family to be put in that position
where you are going to be on callback, or worse, charged
criminally, or you are going to lose your job. It is just
terrible.
Then COPA, it is terrible what COPA is doing to these
officers, proactive officers, too, most of them. They are
trying to do their job because they love what they do. Like I
said, it is not a job, it is a career, a calling, and we see
something and you want to react, and it happens in a split
second.
What happened to us was seconds, and it could have happened
differently if there weren't certain policies and procedures
that were put in place.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you so much. My time has long expired. I
am sorry, Mr. Garrido.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chair Jordan. The gentleman yields back. I thank the
gentleman.
We will now recognize the gentleman from Oregon, Mr. Bentz,
for five minutes.
Mr. Bentz. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank all of you for being here.
Mr. Caldwell, I lost a younger brother in an airplane
crash. I couldn't talk about it for three years. It has been
five years ago.
I have to compliment you on being here because there
becomes a callousness, kind of a feeling that these deaths
don't really matter. So, without people like you stepping up
and explaining the loss, then things don't tend to happen. So,
I want to thank you again for what it takes for you to be here
today.
Mr. Caldwell. Thank you.
Mr. Bentz. Perhaps you can share with us what you do to try
to bring yourself to talk about this kind of loss.
Mr. Caldwell. Well, honestly, when this happened on June
24th, I didn't make it public until the next day, but I was
really going to wait until the following week because I didn't
want to have to deal with the emotions that come with the folks
calling and checking in on you. I decided to post it on June
25th and make it publicly known because the people who had
murdered my brother were still out there.
As you all know, I work for Fox News channel, and it has
been a tremendous platform for me. I thank the people over at
Fox News channel, Suzanne Scott and many others, who have
allowed me to be able to tell me story. As I begin to tell the
story, it really hit me that many people who don't have access
to such platforms to be able to get justice for their families,
to have their voices known.
When my brother was murdered, the newscast that day said
18-year-old murdered, two other people shot. That was it. No
name. No picture. How many other people are experiencing that
daily, if they are even getting mentioned on the news?
I know that the people behind me are overwhelmed. I know
that the Chicago police--there are many really good heroes
within the Chicago police. I only shared my story and I get
before cameras because I want to ensure that not just my
brother's murder case is solved, but many, many others.
So, I have been able to utilize the platform, which I have
at Fox News, to share other stories of families who are looking
for that help. That is one of the reasons, as I was going
through the process of planning my brother's funeral and I saw
how expensive it was, and I am thinking, the folks who live in
Chicago, a lot of poor people and live in these particular
areas, they are receiving a brunt of the murders. How can they
afford this?
So, it was a mission of mine, and it is one that I will
continue.
Mr. Bentz. Thank you so much for that.
Mr. Garrido, or excuse me, Lieutenant Garrido, I have a
friend who is a retired prosecutor. So, I reached out to him in
anticipation of today's meeting, and I asked him what standards
should apply to prosecutors. He said, about national standards,
There aren't many, but that is because each local community is
supposed to elect folks who will protect them.
and so, rather than have a national standard, that is the
approach he mentioned.
That said, he goes on to say,
The people of Chicago have no less interest in being safe from
random shootings, gang violence, and rampant drug dealing than
any other part of America.
Then, he says this:
What is particularly risible about Kim Foxx is that she's look
primarily to the criminal defense attorneys and advocates for
criminals known as the woke community, or known in the woke
community as the criminal justice affected community, not
victim groups, not police or law enforcement organizations.
For example, Foxx, as well as approximately three dozen
Soros DAs out of the 2,500 elected DAs in the United States do
not participate in the National DA Association, by far the
largest prosecutor organization, which has been around since
1950. That it, that organization, to which they don't
apparently belong, has avoided taking partisan political
positions.
She and other Soros DAs have coalesced around a much
smaller group called the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys,
which has few members nationwide and, unlike the NDAA, has
taken very partisan political positions.
My question to you is, after all that, is it true that they
are taking political positions, as opposed to those which are
going to help more adequately control crime?
Lt. Garrido. Absolutely.
Mr. Bentz. Please explain.
Lt. Garrido. Absolutely. Just like I said before about her
changing the threshold for felony theft from $500-$1,000, she
has a lot of leeway to decide what they are going to charge and
what they are not going to charge.
When we present homicide cases or any case for felony
approval, they put a lot of restrictions and just create these
long list of things that we have to do to try to--hoops that we
have to jump through, and they make it difficult.
If I could, a sentence from a letter that one of the
State's attorneys, a top-ranking State's attorney who left, he
said:
The State's attorney voiced her concern with a headline and the
heat she was getting over her backers and never voiced any
concern over the fact that this woman was shot and killed
simply for walking to the store, and nobody is going to face a
murder charge. That is what is wrong with this administration.
This administration is more concerned with political narratives
and agendas than with victims and prosecuting violent crimes.
This is why I can't stay any longer.
This is one of several public letters that were put out by
State's attorneys as they are leaving. It is 100 percent based
on political ideology and not seeking justice for victims in
Chicago.
Mr. Bentz. Thank you so much.
My time is up. I yield back.
Chair Jordan. I thank the gentleman. The gentleman yields
back.
The gentlelady from Florida, Ms. Lee, is recognized for
five minutes.
Ms. Lee. Lieutenant Garrido, I would like to start with you
and return to the subject of bail reform and appropriate bail
procedures.
I had the privilege of serving my community as a Federal
prosecutor, and later as a judge, so I understand what a
critical part of the criminal process that is, and how much it
affects overall community safety.
Will you elaborate for us, please, on the effect it is
having on the law enforcement officers' ability to do their job
when prosecutors don't seek detention hearings and judges are
prohibited from considering community safety and likelihood of
recidivism as factors in making appropriate bail
determinations?
Lt. Garrido. Well, it is just another nail in the coffin
where we repeatedly see different things that embolden the bad
guys and make these criminals feel that they are not going to
be held accountable. So, why should they care? They are not
worried about getting arrested because they know they are going
to be out right away.
We oftentimes would joke just because for years, our
criminal justice system in Chicago here, in Cook County, has
been in shambles, that most of these offenders, they will get
off on technicalities or whatnot, but at least sometimes they
would spend time in jail while waiting for their trial. So,
they would get at least some time served. Now, that is out the
window.
So, you have got the bad guys who are just learning, and
they are quickly learning because this stuff is broadcast
everywhere, that they don't have to worry about any
consequences. So, it makes it extremely difficult for officers
to do their job because you are now dealing with people that
are even more combative than they normally would be.
Ms. Lee. You also touched on the subject of juvenile
offenders. In your experience, tell me about some of the
juvenile offenders you see. Is it important for prior juvenile
offenses to be considered in the totality of the seriousness of
a criminal's behavior and in future prosecution and sentencing
or detention decisions?
Lt. Garrido. Absolutely. We have seen time and again the
gang bangers are actually using--they have done it for years.
They always use the younger kids. They would use them to do
their burglaries. They use them to hold their weapons. They use
them to hold their drugs because they know they are just going
to get a slap on the wrist. So, that has always been the case.
Now it seems as though these young offenders are getting
more dangerous, quite honestly. They are now shooting at
people. They are now stealing cars and doing carjackings. Like
I said, the other day the offenders were four of them, and they
were ages 12-16 years old. So, we have got our juvenile
criminal offenders, at least here in Chicago, are becoming more
and more violent. So, absolutely that stuff should be
considered.
Ms. Lee. Officer Yanez, you touched on the dismantling of
the gang and gun specialized units. Would you elaborate for us,
please, on why those units were established, why they are
important, and why it is affecting the efficacy of your work
not to have them anymore?
Officer Yanez. So, I worked the 7th District Tac 4\1/2\
years. As John Garrido said, ``you have to learn your
technique.'' Everyone learns their profession in a certain
field, and you have officers that had experience numerous
years, over the years, of working with certain individuals,
whether they be gang members, gun offenders, narcotics, and
just being able to deal with it when it comes to saturation.
The units that were established were for basically common
sense what they were named. The gangs were for officers that
had prior knowledge with certain gang members or leaders, and
they knew when a gang shooting happened and occurred, where
their retaliation would be, so we could focus on that area.
As far as the gun teams, they specialized in retrieving
guns from offenders, gun offenders.
Saturation was basically you saturated an area where there
was going to be--where we had knowledge of a gang shooting. We
would saturate that area so there wasn't retaliation.
When you dismantle that and take away some of the perks--so
they worked 10-hour days as one of the perks. You have officers
that have to be on the job, and you are arresting individuals,
and then you have officers that are--that takes a process. You
are arresting them, so it could take up to several hours to
process a criminal, an offender, being charged with a weapon.
So, you also increase the overtime pay. So, it is just--
yes.
Ms. Lee. Lieutenant Garrido, I would also like to touch on
the subject of officer discipline and the concept that officers
are confronted with anonymous complaints against them and
denied an opportunity to understand the allegations or confront
the witnesses that might be making allegations against them.
Would you share with us what is going on in that regard and
how it is affecting officer morale?
Lt. Garrido. It has a huge impact on morale. Just to give
an example, we have officers that will--the complaint will come
in. It is an anonymous complaint. The investigation has been
going, and these investigations sometimes take 2-4 years. It is
incredible. I had one investigation for us that was nine years
in the making.
So, these officers are going to work every day. They don't
know when the next shoe is going to drop. They don't know
whether this investigation is going to go. They don't know if
they are going to somehow be criminally prosecuted as well. It
is demoralizing for the officers, and if you can imagine that
officer is sitting there in roll call every day, it is
affecting his partners and the other officers because they also
know that he is going through it, and some of them are going
through it as well.
These investigations just go on and on and on because they
just--I don't know what the reason is. They are short-staffed,
they are not conducting the proper investigations, whatever it
is, and then allowing these anonymous complaints.
People learn quickly. Just to complain against the police.
You just put in a complaint. They lie a lot. There are a ton of
these investigations that are false and false allegations, and
at least when you had to make them sign an affidavit, at least
that helped reduce it a little bit. By eliminating that, now
anybody and everybody is making complaints against the
officers.
Ms. Lee. Thank you.
Mr. Chair, I yield back.
Chair Jordan. The gentlelady yields back.
Lieutenant, Mr. Caldwell mentioned earlier a no-chase
policy. Is that the policy with the police department now?
Lt. Garrido. So, we have always had a vehicle chase policy,
and it is a balancing test, and you have to weigh things out,
the safety of the public--
Chair Jordan. A foot chase as well?
Lt. Garrido. --and they have added a lot--well, they have
added a lot of restrictions and things to make it difficult to
actually conduct a chase.
Well, now they just recently added at the end of last year,
a foot chase policy, which also includes a balancing test. So,
if you walk up to a corner, you get a call of somebody selling
drugs on the corner, and they match the description that was
given and they take off running, that alone is not enough. You
are not supposed to chase those offenders or those subjects.
The interesting thing about it, as far as how things are so
politicized, criminals are generally stupid. So, it took them
years to figure out that our vehicle chase policy is
restrictive. Well, Lightfoot and Brown couldn't wait to get out
there and broadcast that we have a foot chase policy. So, what
happens? We ended up with videos of people yelling at the
officers that are conducting foot chases, yelling at them that
they can't chase.
Chair Jordan. Wow. Can't chase them, and then if you do
catch the bad guy, you get an anonymous complaint, and you get
a prosecutor who won't prosecute them. I mean, it is such a
deal. You wonder--again, I think one of the key elements here
is the damage to morale, the fact that you are that many
officers, 1,700 officers short, I think, is scary.
It is not my time. It is the gentleman from Virginia who
will get his full five minutes, of course, and the gentleman
from Virginia, Mr. Cline, is recognized.
Mr. Cline. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank our witnesses for being here today. This is
a truly enlightening opportunity for us to hear from you, for
the public to hear from you as well. Your voices need to be
heard, and as Lieutenant Garrido said, ``the silent majority
needs to speak up.''
I come from a State where we have these problems, we have
had these problems of recidivism, but in the 1990s, we took
action to address them. We passed a ban on parole. We passed
stricter laws regarding bond and bail laws, and we now have the
lowest recidivism rate in the country, in Virginia.
We are blessed to have leaders who recognize the benefit of
that, and we want to keep it that way.
Illinois is, unfortunately, in a different place with their
recidivism rate. Whereas Virginia's is around 20 percent,
Illinois' is around 35 percent. Chicago is 89 percent--as high
as 89 percent potentially. It is really shocking to hear what
has happened to the recidivism rate and what that does to
crime.
Lieutenant, can you talk about the recidivism rate, but
also the idea that not just chasing, but taking action
regarding smaller crimes can help prevent larger crimes.
Lt. Garrido. Well, with the recidivism--and I don't know
the statistics, but I know there is numbers out there that show
that a majority of the crimes are committed by the same people
that are just out over and over and over and over.
As far as the other aspect of your question--I am sorry,
can you repeat that last part again?
Mr. Cline. Well, can you talk about kind of a broken
windows policy where--
Lt. Garrido. Right, right. So, up until 2016, we used to
have a policy of doing contact cards, and that is where
officers would, anytime they stopped or came in contact with
somebody, you would document it on a little card and you would
turn it in, and they would get put in the computer. So, it
helped actually solve a lot of investigations because people
could look up and see where people were that matched certain
descriptions.
Policies changed. We went to an investigative stop report,
which was two pages, took a ton of time to complete, and the
numbers dropped big time. So, before 2016, we were stopping
anywhere from 450,000-500,000 people a year here in Chicago.
So, it is engaging with the public out there, it is proactive
policing.
That first year, 2016, we dropped to 108,000 stops, and it
has dropped down to now where it is probably at about 30,000
stops a year. That is a lot of people that are not interacting
with the police anymore, so they feel emboldened, they are
braver, they are going to carry their weapons, they are going
to do more crimes.
Mr. Cline. Talk to me about the impact that the Defund the
Police movement has had on that as well.
Lt. Garrido. These officers want to do the job that they
are hired to do. They want to go out there, they want to work.
Helping people is in their DNA. Putting these restrictions on
and making it extremely difficult, making them jump through
hoops, making them spend all this down time--before it was
quick. You would stop somebody, you do a contact card, you move
on to the next one.
When you have to stop and do a two-page report on the
computer, it completely hampers the whole process.
Mr. Cline. Officer Yanez, you mentioned your coworker who
actually hesitated and the impact of that Defund the Police
movement on officers hesitating on the scene, whether it is to
engage or to actually take action. Can you speak a little bit
about the impact that has--that Defund the Police movement has
had on officer responsiveness?
Officer Yanez. I didn't say that. No, my partner never
hesitated. I can see that--
Mr. Cline. One of your coworkers, and maybe it was the
lieutenant.
Officer Yanez. Yes, the lieutenant mentioned that the
officer conduct--was fighting with a gentleman with PCP. I have
seen a lot of it while I was an officer, that you second-guess
yourself. Like, even pulling your gun out during a situation
where you kind of have a feeling, gut feeling. There is like--
you got to get a number for that.
Then so many different policies. It is more of--it is so
hard to be a proactive officer nowadays because of all the
limitations that you have as an officer, as a liability.
Mr. Cline. Well, it has led to 2,000 officers short this
year, 350 resignations, lateral transfers, as you were talking
about. The SAFE-T Act just seems to be really, really harmful,
and the potential is going to be very dangerous.
I am looking at, for a bond hearing, you need to establish
proof to hold a defendant. You have to establish proof that the
suspect committed the crime and poses a threat to the physical
safety of a specific identifiable person.
Wouldn't that necessitate the introduction of trial
evidence in a bond hearing? How on Earth would you be able to
adjudicate in a bond hearing whether a proof existed that a
suspect committed a crime?
Lt. Garrido. Well, here, just I think it was this morning--
or yesterday morning or this morning, an offender shot his
neighbor's dog in the head. Officers responded. He was a foot
chase. They recovered a backpack that he pitched that had
weapons in it and loaded magazines. For court today, they
actually did ask for a pretrial detention, and the judge said
no and denied it.
So, even if we have prosecutors that are willing to
actually go forward with detention, now we have judges that
will throw that one out.
Mr. Cline. I yield back.
Chair Jordan. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr.
Kiley.
Mr. Kiley. What is happening in Chicago is a travesty, and,
unfortunately, there are some in the world of politics who
would prefer not to talk about what is happening in Chicago,
who would have us become almost habituated to the horrifying
scale of violence and death going on here. So, I think this is
a really important hearing that we are having today, to send a
loud and clear message that what is happening here should never
happen in the United States of America.
For that matter, what is happening in Manhattan should
never happen in the United States of America. What is happening
in L.A. should never happen in the United States. What is
happening in San Francisco should never happen in the United
States. San Francisco is one of the most beautiful places on
Earth, and it is now losing people faster than any major city
in U.S. history, largely because of the crime situation there.
So, there is no doubt that we need to restore proper
penalties for criminal conduct, as well as, by the way, restore
evidence-based rehabilitation to help offenders turn their
lives around.
What is just as important, I believe, is we as a country
need to restore the proper respect and admiration for our men
and women in law enforcement. Because if you talk to any police
chief or sheriff in any community around the country, they will
tell you that they are understaffed, that they are having
trouble retaining people, they are having trouble recruiting
people.
Here in Chicago, for example, since 2019, the Chicago force
has lost 3,300 officers. They have only replaced about half of
them. Lieutenant Garrido, you testified that the force is about
2,000 officers short. Resignations increased by 65 percent from
2000-2021. One former State prosecutor said that, ``morale
among law enforcement in Illinois is at an all-time low.''
It is not just happening here. A survey from 2023 by the
Police Executive Research Forum showed that agencies are losing
officers faster than they can hire new ones. There were nearly
50 percent more resignations in 2022 than in 2019, such that
the total sworn staff has dropped nearly five percent over the
last three years.
In my State of California, the total patrol officers
dropped by over 13 percent over a little more than a decade.
That means it dropped from 195 officers per 100,000 residents
to just 169, and this level is now the lowest level since at
least 1999-1991, which, of course, means when you have fewer
officers patrolling the streets, that criminals are able to
operate with greater impunity.
So, Lieutenant Garrido, there are obviously a lot of causes
of this problem, in particular, taking tools away from law
enforcement officers to do their jobs and the actual defunding
of the police. To what extent is this attributable as well to
sort of a hangover of the Defund the Police movement and the
toxic, malicious rhetoric that was directed at law enforcement
by certain people in public life?
Lt. Garrido. Oh, this is mission accomplished for the
Defund the Police movement. When I took the exam in 1989 to
come on the job, 35,000 people took the test with me. Now, they
are lucky if they can get 1,500 people to take the test.
They are actually--you can walk in the day of and actually
take the exam if you just happen to be strolling by and see
that there is a test being given.
It is extremely difficult to recruit right now, and that is
all, by and large, because of the way that our elected
officials--and some would say maybe they don't realize it, but
I think they do. They know exactly what they are doing, they
know exactly what they are saying, and they are demonizing our
officers, and they are making this job not desirable, so--
nobody wants to come on it.
Another significant impact, my father was a Chicago police
officer. My uncle was a Chicago police officer. At one time--I
know Carlos' father was a Chicago police officer. At one time,
parents would want their kids to follow in their footsteps.
Now, there is a huge movement, I don't know anybody that would
tell their children to come on the job now.
Mr. Kiley. Yes.
Lt. Garrido. That is a big portion--children of police
officers is a large portion of our force, and they are just not
doing it anymore.
Mr. Kiley. That is a really important point. So, this
message that our police officers, our men and women in law
enforcement, are the guardians of our community. While the rest
of us run away from danger, they run to danger. Their work is
the cornerstone of a civil society, protecting the rule of law,
and yet you have all this rhetoric vilifying police officers
that sends precisely the opposite message.
So, in addition to changing our laws, I think we really
need to rededicate ourselves as a country to honoring and
celebrating those folks who are in law enforcement and to have
almost a new national campaign dedicated to celebrating law
enforcement as an honorable calling, a noble calling to inspire
a new generation of young people, including those who are sons
and daughters of folks who are in law enforcement now, to want
to serve, to see the problems that we are facing in many of our
cities and say that, in spite of the risks, they want to be
part of the solution because it is a function that is so
closely tied to the public good.
So, I think that all of us have a role to play in that. One
thing I did is, for police week, I honored an officer in
different departments within my district, and we call it the
Police Honor Roll, and gave them a Congressional recognition on
the floor of the House of Representatives.
For citizens, just thanking officers, when you come across
them in daily life can go a long way as well. Sort of in that
vein and closing, I would just like to thank everyone here
today, including our two witnesses, of course, for your service
to your community and to our country.
I yield back. Thank you.
Chair Jordan. The gentleman yields back. That is a great
point about the family and the tradition, the legacy that is
there and how that is changing, unfortunately.
We have three more Members. We have Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr.
Gaetz via Zoom, and then we will finish with the gentlelady
from this great State, Ms. Miller.
So, Mr. Fitzgerald is recognized for five minutes.
Mr. Fitzgerald. Thank you, Chair, and thanks everybody for
being here this morning, thank the Fraternal Order of Police
for hosting us. I too believe this is an important hearing.
I know there is some criticism out there coming from, well,
the data and the statistics may be blown out of proportion.
My congressional seat is the suburbs of Milwaukee, and we
have been seeing a similar trend that has been going on for
some time.
First, I wanted to just touch on, my father was a Chicago
police officer. In 1966 he was sworn in, and so I grew up and
our family grew up in the 15th District. He was there almost
the entire time he was with the Chicago Police Department.
One of the things that--and so this would have been in the
1970s, right. One of the things that you saw back then that may
be missing--and that is why I wanted to ask the question of you
today--there used to be a sense of community policing.
In other words, if you were certainly a beat cop in
Chicago, you knew just about everybody that lived certainly on
your block. You knew anybody that was in that district, or you
had contact with them. So, there was much more of a give and
take when it came to everyday policing.
I am just wondering, have you seen that diminish over the
years, and how much of that do you think is a problem?
So, Lieutenant Garrido, can you respond to that first?
Lt. Garrido. There are no doubt people are becoming more
and more isolated and less community-oriented. They tried to
start doing block clubs and different things to get people
involved, to engage in their neighborhoods.
Also, if you were to go out and start knocking on doors in
some of the most violent neighborhoods in the city, the
residents there would tell you they want the police in their
community, they want officers there, they want those
gangbangers off the corner. They--absolutely, they crave it.
That is what we are hearing, the narrative that we are
hearing is put out by the politicians. It is not the actual
people that are on the ground in these neighborhoods. They
actually want us there, and they want to work with us, and they
want to make their communities safer. They don't want to have
to worry about taking a bullet every time they go out for the
groceries.
Mr. Fitzgerald. Right. Officer Yanez, can you respond to
that? What is the feel out there on the street?
Officer Yanez. I feel that the community is scared. If they
are seen talking to the police officers--nothing is being done
to these offenders or criminals--so they are afraid of
retaliation, so they avoid officers and talking to them.
I remember one incident where we cleaned a whole block.
They were having a illegal block party, and it was like over
300 offenders in the street drinking alcohol and drugs. Once we
cleared it out, we walked that whole block, because offenders
sometimes throw firearms under cars or in a bush.
As we were walking, the neighbors started coming out--and
it was at nighttime, it was around 8:30 p.m.--and they started
coming out and sitting on their porch.
I am always the first officer that will engage in a
conversation with the community. I spoke with an elderly lady.
She said thank you for doing this. I can't remember the last
time I came out in the afternoon when it got dark and sat on my
porch and felt safe.
Supervisors had vehicles at each end of the block. None of
the individuals that were there on the block lived there. We
allowed everyone that lived on the block to stay, but you
would--none of them, I would say about 98 percent didn't live
there, so it is really hard.
Mr. Fitzgerald. Right.
Officer Yanez. You make it hard for witnesses and the
community to step up. It is just terrible.
Mr. Fitzgerald. Yes. I think the other thing you hear
oftentimes from officers is that, if you apprehend somebody and
within 24 hours, 48 hours, you see that person is back on the
street, that sends a message not only, obviously, to every
officer that is on the street, but to other members of the
community, that everybody knows what is going on, right? They
know if somebody has been arrested. They know if somebody has
been part of an incident that went down in their own
neighborhood. Then they are back out on the street. It just
sends the wrong message, doesn't it?
Officer Yanez. Well, it definitely does. Actually, I would
elaborate on that. A lot of them, the community knows who does
the shooting, but they are so scared because now the judicial
system, you are forced to be a witness and you got to attend.
Let's say the witnesses have jobs. The court system, the
attorneys, the defense attorneys, they keep continuing. It is a
continuance all the time. The criminals, they don't care,
because they don't have a job. They are locked up or being held
on bond.
So it is like, they just keep continuing it till the
witnesses get tired of the court system. It is just terrible.
Mr. Fitzgerald. Thank you both for your service.
I yield back.
Officer Yanez. Thank you.
Chair Jordan. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Florida, Mr.
Gaetz. I think we got him remotely. Is that right?
Mr. Gaetz. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for holding
this hearing. I regret I am not there with you in person, and I
would be but for some of the ongoing negotiations regarding our
government funding that we are working through.
I want to followup on where my colleague, Representative
Fitzgerald, was speaking with Officer Yanez about the
development of witnesses. I just wonder if what we have seen
from prosecutors that don't charge cases appropriately or that
plead cases out for minor offenses, where people who might be
violent are back on the streets, does that make it harder to
get witnesses to come forward? Do the witnesses potentially
fear that, despite their participation in the criminal justice
system, they might be subject to some sort of retaliation?
Officer Yanez. Oh, definitely, a hundred percent.
Especially with this cash bond, you are going to be releasing
offenders, and the first thing their lawyer tells them is,
there is no victim, no witness, and there is no crime.
So, all they are going to do is retaliate and threaten and,
at worse, maybe kill some of these--they are going to basically
revictimize these victims and witnesses so that they don't have
to have a trial or court.
Mr. Gaetz. It is just an astonishing amount of testimony
that we have a criminal justice system that now the
participants in that system are saying revictimizes the people
that we are trying to protect.
I don't believe that the answer to these questions comes
out of Washington, but I do think hearings like this are really
important because we want to get a sense of what some of the
early warning signs are in a community like Chicago so that the
challenges you face don't metastasize.
If you were giving a briefing to another community that had
a prosecutor with some of the same theories that the
prosecutors have had in Chicago or some of the constraints that
a city council might try to put on a police department, what
would you do to warn other communities about some of the early
things that they would want to rebuff so that their streets
aren't turned over to the criminals like Chicago's have been?
Officer Yanez. It is very difficult because I would also
fear for their safety. So, it is like--I can only speak for
myself after the incident that happened to me. I had my family
and me move out of the city because I just felt it unsafe. I
love the city of Chicago, and it is a beautiful city, and I
love the people, the community. I just felt like I couldn't
protect my family the way I used to. So, if that answers your
question.
Mr. Gaetz. Yes, I would love the lieutenant's perspective
on that as well.
Lt. Garrido. At the very basis of it is to pay attention to
who they are voting for. It is not just with one person. It is
not just the mayor. It is not just our prosecutor. It is the
mayor, the prosecutors, our judges, our legislators, even our
aldermen.
We have--it has become such a cesspool of ill intent. They
just--it makes no sense when people are repeatedly voting
against their interests and putting people in place that are
having such a negative impact on our communities. It just
almost appears as though that everybody is somewhat blind to
it.
Mr. Gaetz. Yes. Getting it wrong is different than ill
intent. Ill intent makes it seem like the whole construct of
these policies is to end policing, whether it is to take away
immunities, to take away policing tools.
When you don't allow chase of the bad guys, in Florida, we
would think that is like not having police at all, because you
don't have the ability to bring anyone to justice that may have
committed a criminal offense.
Mr. Caldwell, you have heard the gentleman sitting next to
you, Mr. Yanez, say he has left. Your brother tragically was
the victim of a murder.
Mr. Caldwell. Yes.
Mr. Gaetz. Died. I guess my question to you is: Is Chicago
savable or is the city in such a downward trajectory that our
only hope is to make sure that these policies don't spread to
other places?
Mr. Caldwell. That is something that I have thought about a
great deal since last year. Is Chicago savable? Absolutely, it
is savable.
We absolutely have to unite as a city, and a lot of the
leadership that we have seen--Brandon Johnson, as you know, he
just got elected into office, but crime is now up 29-30
percent. If the leadership doesn't start changing, if the folks
in Chicago don't start voting differently and demanding
justice, versus becoming numb to what we see as a daily
slaughter, then we can't get anything done, we can't have
movement.
I do believe that the city can be saved, and it is worth
being saved.
Mr. Gaetz. Thank you all for your testimony.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, for having this hearing, and I yield
back.
Chair Jordan. The gentleman yields back.
We now recognize the gentlelady from Illinois, Ms. Miller.
Ms. Miller. Thank you.
Last week, Governor Pritzker's SAFE-T Act went into effect
here in Illinois, making Illinois the first State to do away
with cash bail. I want to remind everybody that 100 out of 102
States Attorneys oppose this.
Despite Governor Pritzker and the Democrats' assurances
that the SAFE-T Act would not result in the release of violent
offenders, initial reports tell us a different story.
The first individual released under this new policy had
been arrested for pepper-spraying four police officers. Further
reports shed light on a similar case where a man on parole for
armed robbery and aggravated battery was once again
apprehended, this time for the theft of merchandise valued at
$68,000 from a DuPage--from a store in DuPage County.
Astonishingly, he walked free after the arrest.
The release of such an individual who clearly poses a
significant threat to the community without requiring bail, it
clearly shows Governor Pritzker lied to the people of Illinois.
I want to make the statement that the first role of the
government is to protect the people. There is a party that is
supporting an open border and defunding the police.
I always told my kids, there is a scripture that says a
tree is known by its fruit. Likewise, a politician is known by
their votes and the policies they promote. The fact is every
Democrat voted for the SAFE-T Act and supported Governor
Pritzker's lie to the American people, and every Republican
voted no.
I am so sad for you all that have been impacted, our police
who are being defunded and demoralized. The American people do
not support that. There are more of us than them. We are the
normals and they are the crazies.
What I want to know is, what is it going to take to wake
the people up in Chicago, and especially in the communities
that are disproportionately impacted by this violence, to
realize that the people they are electing are promoting these
policies and voting for it?
It is a clear line. One hundred percent of the Democrats
voted for Pritzker's SAFE-T Act.
So, Lieutenant, I would like to start with you and let you
each share what can be done to wake the people up.
Lt. Garrido. So, several of my friends asked me why I was
going to come here to testify today, kind of citing the
definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over
and expecting something different. It doesn't mean that we
don't do anything. We can't speak up. We can't not shine a
light on it. We have to draw attention to what is happening and
what is going on.
What it is going to take to wake them up, I don't know.
Think about just the few that you listed cases of these
offenders that are walking free or the guy who shot and killed
his neighbor's dog this morning. These are clearly violent
people, and that is not even enough to get them held.
Officer Yanez. If they can't see, they can at least hear
what is going on in the city. I believe that the bill has a
beautiful name, but it doesn't State that. It is nothing safe
about that. All you are going to end up doing is revictimizing
the victim. Worse, even if they are not violent criminals for
what they did, they are going to get out, and they are going to
be afraid to go back to jail, and all they are going to do is
hurt a witness or a victim or a law-abiding citizen. So, it
just doesn't make any sense.
Mr. Caldwell. During the most recent mayoral election,
public safety was the No. 1 concern for Chicagoans. For the
first time in 20 years, it wasn't the economy, it wasn't
infrastructure. It is what people have been seeing on their
televisions and experiencing personally.
Today, I have a friend who is with me from my eighth-grade
class who experienced the tragedy of two of her innocent
brothers being murdered. So many families within the city of
Chicago have experienced the same.
What is going to change the trajectory, and we are going to
see the--we are seeing the implementation of the SAFE-T Act
now--as people see more and more of these things get out of
control, someone is going to get fed up.
I know that we have become numb to it here in Chicago. The
value of human life has been eroded, but things will change as
more and more people, whether they be on the North Side, the
Gold Coast, the places where you don't usually see crime
historically, the more they get fed up, and especially with
Brandon Johnson who I don't think has been doing an effective
job even though he just started as mayor.
He said we can't demonize kids. The ideology of a child is
innocent. An innocent child does not go and rob somebody. An
innocent child at 11 years old isn't carjacking people, they
are not murdering and shooting people. We have to hold these
people accountable no matter what age they are, and we have to
throw the book at them.
Honestly, this is just where we are right now in the city
of Chicago, no more leniency on murder and shootings. Hold
these folks accountable and hold them accountable today.
Ms. Miller. I would like to finish up by saying, we need to
hold Governor Pritzker accountable and every Democrat that
voted for the SAFE-T Act.
Thank you.
Chair Jordan. Well said. Well said, Mary.
Officer Yanez, how old were you when you became a Chicago
police officer?
Officer Yanez. It was 2014. Thirty-two, I think.
Chair Jordan. Thirty-two?
Lieutenant Garrido, how old were you?
Lt. Garrido. I was 23.
Chair Jordan. Twenty-three.
Lt. Garrido. I was 23.
Chair Jordan. So, if you talked to a 32-year-old or a 23-
year-old, I think you said, today, would you encourage them to
be a police officer?
Lt. Garrido. Yes, but not in Chicago.
Chair Jordan. Wow.
Officer Yanez. I would. It is just like I tell everybody,
you got to have a passion for it, but it is a difficult job
right now.
Chair Jordan. Yes.
Officer Yanez. It is a difficult position that you are
going to be put in. Just learn the ropes. Things will change.
Chair Jordan. Yes. I think one or both of you testified
earlier that so many officers are telling their sons and
daughters, don't do it.
Lt. Garrido. Yes, they are telling their kids not to join
the Chicago Police Department.
Chair Jordan. Yes.
Lt. Garrido. There is--parents are, you know--
Chair Jordan. Many of them are families like yours that--
where your dads were officers, right?
Lt. Garrido. It is generational, right. It is something
that we do and something that we love to do. So, it is
heartbreaking to not want to guide their children to the job
that they were so proud of doing themselves. So many times,
they are just directing them to go elsewhere.
Chair Jordan. That is not just Chicago. That is happening
in other big cities around the country as well.
Lt. Garrido. Yes.
Chair Jordan. That, to me, is one of the scarier things
about all the defund police and everything else they are doing,
making your job tough. The idea that you can't chase down a bad
guy, to me, that was like, you got to be--I am just a country
boy from Ohio, but that seems like, you got to be kidding me.
That is what I thought police do. It makes absolutely no sense.
So, we want to thank you all for being here.
I thought maybe we would end with Mr. Caldwell, if you
could just remind us again about your brother. I think you said
he was 18 years old.
Mr. Caldwell. He just turned 18.
Chair Jordan. Just had turned 18. What was he thinking
about--or maybe even your brother and your friend's two
brothers. Because in the end, we got to focus on how all this
stuff is truly impacting families--
Mr. Caldwell. Yes.
Chair Jordan. --people--
Mr. Caldwell. Yes.
Chair Jordan. --human beings--fellow human beings in this
community. That is what this--in the end, that is what it is
all about.
So, tell us, the last two minutes and 52 seconds, tell us
about Christian or your friend's two brothers who were
tragically killed as well.
Mr. Caldwell. Christian was excited about college. That was
his goal. As I mentioned previously, at 16, he wanted me to
take him on a college tour outside of Chicago, which I did.
There is so many like Christian in this town, so many good,
innocent kids who just want to be afforded a life to live.
Oftentimes, within the city of Chicago, whether it be through
policies--because soft-on-crime policies come with a
mentality--where criminals just simply take over, and they have
no fear or regard for the repercussions of breaking the law.
We have to change that immediately, and the way that we
change that, and the way that we prevent another Christian or
my friend's two brothers, prevent their deaths, is to be tough
on crime.
Law and order are the only way we are going to change the
situation here in the city of Chicago. I am hopeful that this
Committee hearing will lead to some more light on that. I am
also disappointed that many of your colleagues on the Democrat
side chose not to come here. Many of the folks who have said
Black Lives Matter--and they do--but they are not showing that
Black Lives Matter by not being here today.
Thank you, Chair Jordan.
Chair Jordan. Again, I want to thank you all. This has been
very insightful for the Members of the House Judiciary
Committee, and we appreciate the time that you took to come and
share your story and provide answers to our questions. More
importantly, we appreciate the service you provided to this
community as people who put on the uniform and risk your lives.
With that, the Committee--we will do a quick press
conference, press availability, just outside in the tent.
Again, we want to thank the FOP. You guys have been
tremendous hosts, and we appreciate what you do. Thank you for
the hospitality you have shown the Committee.
With that, we are adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 10:39 a.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
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