[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 147 (Thursday, December 4, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1735-E1736]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. DANNY K. DAVIS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, December 1, 2014

  Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I am deeply dismayed and 
concerned by the decision of the grand jury not to indict Ferguson, 
Missouri Police Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of Michael Brown. 
Based on my interaction with constituents I expect that many thousands 
of others share that response and will express their concerns in 
peaceful public protests. I call upon law enforcement in Missouri, and 
all across our nation, to show all possible restraint and sensitivity 
and allow the American people to exercise their First Amendment right 
and responsibility in expressing their opinions over this event and 
similar recent events.
  The events leading to the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed 
African American teenager, mirror a horrifying string of similar deaths 
and shootings of African American men at the hands of law enforcement 
all across the country which seem to have escalated in recent weeks: 
Eric Garner (43), Staten Island, New York--July 17; John Crawford (22), 
Beavercreek, Ohio--August 5; Ezell Ford (25), Los Angeles, California--
August 11; Dante Parker, Victorville, California--August 12; Levar 
Jones (35), Columbia, South Carolina--September 4 and most recently 
Tamir E. Rice (12) in Cleveland, Ohio--November 23. According to the 
Chicago Tribune (8/26/2014) ``Chicago police shot 36 people last year, 
26 of them African American males, and have shot 34 people so far this 
year.'' The circumstances surrounding many of those shootings remain 
unclear or unknown. The emerging pattern of these events raise 
significant, troubling questions about the protection of the civil 
rights of Americans, especially young African American males, in 
encounters with law enforcement.

[[Page E1736]]

  The sense of frustration and anger felt by so many African Americans, 
especially young African Americans, is understandable. There remain 
great inequities in the functioning of our criminal justice system, 
inequities which are also still found in housing, finance, employment, 
and electoral politics. History suggests that the reduction of these 
inequities come only after sustained, unremitting public protest, 
unified community resistance and economic, legal and political action. 
The progress we have made as a nation in securing equality and social 
justice has been uneven and intermittent. There have been periods of 
backlash and backsliding but over the years the end result has been 
slow, but relentless progress in repealing and reversing legal, social 
and economic injustices.
  The question before us now is how best to protect our youth, how to 
end violence, including police violence in our community. Times like 
this bring to the surface powerful emotions and the temptation to lose 
faith in our still too often imperfect democratic process. Peoples of 
nations around the world which either have never established democratic 
institutions and processes or have given up on perfecting them have 
paid a horrible, and unnecessary, price. Now is a time to make our laws 
and law enforcement work for our community, not against our community. 
Now is the time for us to redouble our determination to reform and 
strengthen our system of laws and law enforcement, not to abandon it 
for a brief moment of street rage.

                          ____________________