[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 109 (Thursday, July 7, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H4473-H4474]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                ANOTHER AMERICAN SHOT DOWN BY THE POLICE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, I had planned to talk about something 
else this morning, but the events of the last 12 hours changed my 
plans.
  I watched this morning on TV and online--like a lot of Americans--
another of our fellow Americans shot down by the police. This time it 
was in St. Paul, Minnesota. Earlier this week, it was in Baton Rouge. 
But we know it is everywhere--in Chicago, in Baltimore, in South 
Carolina.
  It seems that every week or month another Black man is shot by the 
police, and we always have the same reaction: Oh, it is a tragedy; 
there should be an investigation. A lawsuit is filed, and another 
settlement. Oh, the Justice Department and the FBI need to oversee the 
investigation because we cannot trust the police to police themselves. 
And then we go back to business as usual, and nobody actually does 
anything.
  State by State, city by city, and county by county, we might make 
this reform or that reform, but there is no national strategy to stop 
police from killing people, especially Black people, especially Black 
men.
  I wept this morning as I watched the mother of Philando Castile 
describe her son. She said he had a job, he served children in the 
cafeteria, and that he was a calm young man. She also said that he was 
not a thug.
  Why does a Black woman in the 21st century in the United States of 
America, while a Black man sits in the Oval Office, almost 50 years 
after Martin Luther King, Jr., was gunned down, why does she have to 
start her description of her son with ``He was not a thug''? She said: 
``We are being hunted.''
  Mr. Speaker, this is another sad chapter in American history.
  I do not feel compelled to say in describing my grandson Luisito: 
Well, first and foremost, he is not a gang banger, he is not a thug. 
But for this Black mother and for a lot of African American mothers in 
this country, that is something they feel a necessity to say.
  This mother did everything right. Her son was still shot dead by the 
police. This young man was riding in the passenger seat of a car with 
his fiancee and 4-year-old little daughter in the backseat.
  He had a permit to carry a weapon, which he announced to the police. 
So he had gone through the background check, gone through the training, 
and had the concealed carry permit. But he was shot dead in front of 
his loved ones, his fiancee and daughter.
  Why is it in 21st century America we have to have a conversation 
about how to avoid being shot by the police? Why do I have to instruct 
my grandson about deescalation if he comes in contact with the police, 
about strategies to prevent a sworn public servant, an officer of the 
court, a trained member of law enforcement, and I have to instruct my 
teenage grandson how to prevent that person from shooting him to death 
for no reason? Why, Mr. Speaker?
  We have no national strategy, no national conversation. When 
Americans are literally crying out in the streets that, yes, Black 
lives matter, we have no response from the Congress, the people's 
House. None.
  The head of the FBI announces he won't press charges against a 
candidate in the Democratic Party. Stop everything; we need to have 
hearings, congressional hearings. Benghazi, let's spend millions on 
hearings, political hearings. Planned Parenthood, let's form a special 
committee to do what the majority party feels is important from their 
political point of view.
  But a young Black man is shot by police in his car in cold blood? 
Nothing. Young men are shot by police, videotapes are withheld from the 
public, and nothing happens.
  Mr. Speaker, I think Black lives matter. I think the lives of young 
men in inner cities across this country matter. And I think this 
Congress should be the place where America comes together to decide 
what we are going to do about young Black men getting shot by the 
police. Not next week, when it is going to happen again. Not next 
month, when it is going to happen again. Not waiting safely until after 
the election,

[[Page H4474]]

when it happens again, again, and again.
  Mr. Speaker, this Congress needs to come together and lead, and we 
need to start right now.

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