[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 28 (Tuesday, March 5, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H1699-H1700]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           CALLING FOR REFORM OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Nebraska [Mr. Christensen] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I also serve on the Subcommittee on 
Social Security, and I am honored to call the gentleman from Kentucky 
[Mr. Bunning] my chairman, and it is indeed with honor that I serve on 
his committee.
  Mr. Speaker, today I want to talk about another issue. If I have 
learned anything over the past year in Congress, it is that there are 
two opposing views on crime in our country. There are those who believe 
that crime is not necessarily an issue of personal responsibility, but 
of environment. They tend to believe that the slick criminal trial 
lawyers, the liberal jurists, and endless death penalty appeals have 
been a good development for our criminal justice system. They advocate 
rehabilitation, lenient sentences, and legal loopholes, often in the 
name of compassion.
  Then there are those like myself, those who are sick and tired of 
criminals preying on our families and children. We are tired of our 
kids being afraid to walk to school alone, we are tired of illegal 
drugs that are poisoning our youth, eating away at their futures. We 
are tired of slick criminal defense lawyers pushing criminals to 
freedom through legal loopholes. We are tired of seeing our prisoners 
treated better than the working men and women of this country.
  I would like to give you just one recent example of what those of us 
in the silent majority are tired of. A recent decision by Federal Judge 
Herald Baer illustrates what is wrong with the liberals' view on crime, 
and why it is so important that we put justice back into our criminal 
justice system.
  Judge Baer was appointed by President Clinton, due to, in President 
Clinton's own words, ``his outstanding record of achievement.'' One 
wonders if President Clinton would stand by those words today, after 
reading Judge Baer's recent opinion.

                              {time}  1545

  This is an account of his recent opinion.
  During the early morning hours of April 21, 1995, police officer 
Richard Carroll and his partner, Sergeant Bentley, were assigned to 
plainclothes duty patrol on the north end of Manhattan, an area well 
known for being a hub for the drug trade. At about 5 in the morning, 
these veteran officers observed a woman slowly driving a car with out-
of-State license plates. The woman stopped the car, double-parked, and 
waited.
  Soon four men approached the car, walking single file. Without saying 
so much as one word to the female driver, the men lifted open the trunk 
of the car and placed several duffle bags into the car.
  For obvious reasons becoming a little suspicious, Officers Carroll 
and Bentley drove up to the four males. Immediately the four males 
began running. Unable to apprehend the fleeing men, the officers 
immediately pulled over the woman's car.
  Upon opening the trunk of the car, the officers discovered more than 
80 pounds of cocaine and heroin in the trunk with a street value of 
over $4 million. The woman admitted that she was purchasing drugs, even 
stating that she had expected to be paid $20,000 for the trip and that 
she had made 20 similar trips in the past.
  Now, where I come from in Nebraska, common sense tells us that people 
like that should go to jail. These trained officers clearly had a 
reason to pull over

[[Page H1700]]

the car. You had an out-of-State car, it was moving slowly, in a drug-
dealing neighborhood, in the wee hours of the morning, four men put 
duffle bags in the trunk without speaking to the driver. The four men 
took off running when approached by the police.
  Well, unfortunately, that did not happen. After the slick criminal 
trial lawyers and liberal Judge Baer got through with the case, the 
court ruled that the officers did not have a reasonable suspicion that 
the woman was involved in criminal activity. Judge Baer, in his 
infinite wisdom, suppressed all of the evidence, and now it appears 
that yet another drug dealer will go free.
  Why? Because Judge Baer decided that it was normal for people to run 
from the police in this drug-ridden neighborhood. According to this 
Clinton appointee, quote, had the men not run when the cops began to 
stare at them, it would have been unusual, end of quote. Well, maybe 
our men in blue should start arresting everyone who does not run, then.
  The bottom line, I believe, is this: It is high time judges stopped 
looking for ways to protect criminals, and it is high time our leaders 
started looking for ways to protect families. We can and we must 
restore safety to our streets and sanity to our justice system.
  We are fighting hard here in the 104th Congress to protect the 
American dream, but an essential part of that dream is restoring 
freedom from fear in our streets in America. We must have safe streets 
and secure schools, and I believe we can achieve this on a bipartisan 
fashion here in the 104th Congress.

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