[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 92 (Wednesday, June 10, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H4008]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           CHANGE THE CONVERSATION TO HELP AMERICA'S CHILDREN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, this past weekend and all day on cable 
news ever since, we watched a police officer in McKinney, Texas, 
wrestle with a 14-year-old teenager after what was reported to be a 
pool party. He throws her to the ground, pulls his gun out and points 
it at some other kids, screams at her, and then sits on the teenager, 
who is in her bikini, for a period of time. This is the latest 
installment of the hit cable television news story of the last year or 
more called ``Cops Behaving Badly Caught on Tape.''
  This version was not the most deadly, although there have been 
versions of this story that end in death. It has caused a lot of hot 
air on radio and TV. Some of it is constructive, and some of it is just 
offensive.
  But has it caused a more serious discussion of police and communities 
of color? Has it sparked a more serious discussion about how teenagers 
and police interact or should interact? I hope so, but I kind of doubt 
it.
  Recently, I met with a young man from Chicago who made a real 
impression on me. He is from the Phoenix Military Academy, a smart 
teenager. He is going to go places. He said: You know what, 
Congressman? I have taught myself strategies to deescalate the 
situation whenever I come in contact with police.
  Did you hear that? A teenager feels he needs to teach himself ways to 
deescalate tensions with adult police officers. We are apparently 
leaving it up to our teenagers to figure out ways to deal with the 
police, which is precisely backwards from how things ought to be.
  What the videotape from Texas and the comment from my young friend at 
Phoenix Military Academy in Chicago have in common is that there does 
not seem to be any communication between adults on the police side and 
young people in our community, who the police are sworn to protect. 
Instead of a cooperative relationship between teenagers and adults who 
are there to protect them, there is an adversarial relationship.
  A couple of weeks ago, I looked around while I was at a Judiciary 
Committee hearing on policing strategies in the 21st century, and all I 
saw were people who were 50, 60, and 70 years old. There were no young 
people called to testify, to tell us what they face, how they feel, and 
what we, as adults, should do to help them.
  Very few of us are former or current law enforcement. And while all 
of us are former teenagers, still, for most of us, it has been quite 
awhile since we were a teenager, and our experiences may not be all 
that typical of what young people and the police face today.
  I hope adults like me in places of influence and authority can be 
helpful in creating the conditions where avenues of communication are 
created, but a 3-hour hearing with political undertones and more than a 
little grandstanding is not nearly enough.
  Almost every city in America is one bad incident, an overzealous 
policeman, or a videotaped moment of stupidity or hatred away from a 
riot. Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, and Freddie Gray are 
names we know, but knowing their names is just not enough. We need a 
sustained effort from Congress and from every institution in our 
society to address the chasm between young people, and especially young 
people in communities of color and the police hired to keep them safe.
  And let's remember, while the country was transfixed with a video of 
the cop, the teenagers, and the pool party in Texas, two of my 
constituents were shot and killed this past weekend in Chicago. They 
were among 5 dead in Chicago and among 27 people shot from Friday to 
Monday. At least 5 people were killed and 25 others were shot in and 
around Chicago the weekend before; 12 dead and 56 were wounded over the 
long Memorial Day weekend.
  Knowing the names of Sandy Hook, Newtown, and Columbine are not 
enough when Baltimore, Chicago, and other cities are also losing young 
people--mostly young people--at this rate.
  It goes beyond police practices and the easy availability of guns, 
but that is part of it. When legislators spend more time making guns 
easier to carry and stand-your-ground laws make murder wraps easier to 
beat, our priorities are skewed.
  It goes beyond racial profiling, but that is part of it. When 84 
percent of sobriety checkpoints in Chicago are set up in Black and 
Latino neighborhoods so that cops can stop anyone who drives by, that 
sends a message that is destructive.
  It goes beyond economic opportunity, but that is also part of it. 
Honestly, we do not spend much time in this Congress thinking about how 
we help 10- and 12-year-olds know that a bright future is possible for 
them. We do not do much for children to help them achieve their future, 
but instead we cut things like Head Start and spend more and more money 
on jails.
  Listen, in America, we must change the conversation so that we as a 
nation are working together to help make sure the next generation lives 
to adulthood first. We need to stop talking so much about what protects 
us from those kids and start talking more about what we as adults are 
going to do to protect those kids from the world we have created for 
them.

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