[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 173 (Thursday, October 26, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H8258]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              LOCK HIM UP

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, when Derrick Harper stood in front of 
a Pittsburgh judge a few months ago, it was clear the defendant was a 
special kind of evil person.
  For years, Harper and his crew of deviants ran the city's most brutal 
and ruthless sex trafficking ring. The traffickers lined their pockets 
by forcing young women to have sex with countless men every day. Any 
woman who attempted to escape their custody was tortured and gang 
raped.
  To degrade and dehumanize them, Harper shaved the women's heads with 
butcher knives and branded them with hot irons.
  Harper was the ring leader of this massive trafficking organization, 
but it wasn't until four of his young victims bravely escaped and 
testified against him that justice was served.
  His attempts to rob these women of their dignity had failed, and his 
reign of terror was finally over. Seeing the true depravity, the judge 
sentenced the defendant to 289 years in the penitentiary.
  As a former judge, I applaud this judge. Criminals need to be locked 
up, not victims. America must track down and prosecute these slave 
traders and rescue the victims from this scourge.
  And that is just the way it is.

                          ____________________