[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 117 (Thursday, July 12, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H6115-H6116]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         UPHOLDING CIVIL RIGHTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, earlier this week, I sent a bouquet of 
flowers and a big Puerto Rican flag to Mia Irizarry, a young Puerto 
Rican woman who lives in Chicago who celebrated her 24th birthday last 
month.
  My wife and I wanted to let her know that we support her and we 
admire her. You see, her birthday party at a park in Cook County, 
Illinois, didn't turn out the way she expected. By now, most of us have 
seen the video of that incident. A 62-year-old man, whom police have 
identified as Timothy Trybus, verbally abused and harassed Ms. Irizarry 
because she was wearing a shirt that depicts the flag of our U.S. 
colony, Puerto Rico.
  What unfolds over the 30 minutes is a man physically and verbally 
intimidating a very polite and poised 24-year-old American woman while 
a uniformed police officer stands by and does nothing to intervene or 
help. The officer has been identified as Patrick

[[Page H6116]]

Connor of the Forest Preserve District of the Cook County Police 
Department.
  So an older racist yells at a young Latina because he doesn't like 
what she and other Puerto Ricans living in ``his'' community represent.

  Is that news? No. Sadly, no.
  While most police officers would have done the right thing in that 
incident, this guy was caught on tape doing the wrong thing or, more 
accurately, doing nothing at all.
  For me, this was very personal, because something similar happened to 
me, and something similar has happened to most Puerto Ricans, most 
Latinos, most people of color, and most people who are somehow 
different in this country, at one point or another in their lives.
  Twenty-two years ago, when I was a sophomore in Congress, I was 
entering one of the Capitol office buildings with my daughter, Omaira, 
and my niece, Maritza. I was new, and I was dressed somewhat casually, 
because we were just returning from a Puerto Rican celebration, and my 
daughter was carrying a Puerto Rican flag. The flag came unfurled as it 
went through the X-ray machine, and one of the officers wanted to stop 
us from coming in.
  I showed my official ID as a Member of Congress, to which the officer 
said: ``I don't think so,'' indicating that she thought my ID was a 
fake and that I couldn't possibly be a Member of Congress. She stated 
my ID was fake, in fact.
  There was also the comment at the end: Why don't you and your people 
go back where you came from?
  Twenty-two years after that incident, we are still seeing the same 
kind of bigotry, the same kind of misunderstanding about who Latinos 
and Puerto Ricans are, and the same fear that we are outsiders who 
don't belong here.
  Sadly, the same fear and otherness is extended to other people: the 
handicapped, gay and lesbians, transgender Americans, immigrants, 
Muslims, and people of color. The list just goes on.
  This is certainly not the first time, but, right now, we are in a 
moment in history when Americans are being told to fear other 
Americans. One of the reasons I think the video went viral is because 
it is emblematic of our times.
  Bullies who do not understand the first thing about their fellow 
human beings--Latinos, people of color, immigrants, or Muslims--are 
being taught to fear that something they have is being taken away from 
them. Some now feel it is their right, their privilege, and maybe even 
their duty to go off in public and take action.
  I wonder where they get such an idea.
  When our President calls Puerto Ricans lazy and expensive to help, it 
hurts our Nation. When he calls Mexicans rapists and murderers, or 
calls refugees fleeing violence with their children illegal immigrants, 
or calls transgender soldiers a threat to our country, and says good 
people on both sides of a racist rally where a woman was killed are the 
same, it filters down.
  Maybe the President is just reflecting back the fear, anger, and 
misunderstanding of the voters he wants to mobilize. But all the lying, 
hostility, and racism are clearly taking a toll on our country.
  I just hope that we are all as poised as Ms. Irizarry was, if and 
when someone gets in your face, whether you are wearing a pussy hat, or 
a hijab, or a rainbow flag, or a Black lives matter T-shirt.
  I hope we are all more willing than Officer Connor to take action 
when someone is trying to bully someone else. I know most Americans are 
not like Mr. Trybus, who is afflicted with fear, ignorance, and 
probably a substance abuse problem.
  But the video makes it clear that we all have to step up to defend 
the United States from this tide of misogyny, homophobia, and 
xenophobia, and stand up for what America is really all about.
  Please, let's just do it all together. If you see hate, stand up and 
speak.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record my letter to the Civil Rights 
Division at Main Justice for an investigation into this matter.

                                     House of Representatives,

                                    Washington, DC, July 10, 2018.
     Hon. John M. Gore,
     Acting Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice, 
         Civil Rights Division, Washington, DC.
       Dear Acting Assistant Attorney General Gore: I watched 
     video footage of a woman being harassed by an intoxicated 
     male at a forest preserve in Cook County and I write to 
     express my outrage and demand that the Civil Rights Division 
     does all it can to investigate this incident.
       This past June, Mia Irizzary recorded her unfortunate 
     encounter with an intoxicated male while at a Forest Preserve 
     of Cook County park outside Chicago. An officer with the 
     Forest Preserve looked on, avoided responding to the man and 
     ignored the pleas for help from the woman who was being 
     harassed. It is clear from the video that she was accosted by 
     the man because of her ethnicity and wearing a Puerto Rican 
     flag T-shirt. The man makes reference to his fear that 
     Hispanics are coming to the United States to change him.
       What is even more unacceptable than the man's behavior is 
     the unwillingness of a uniformed officer to intervene when 
     the woman's civil rights were being challenged and the man 
     used physical and verbal intimidation. I have learned that 
     the man was eventually arrested by a different uniformed 
     officer and the initial officer has been consigned to ``desk 
     duty'' pending an investigation.
       Because of the seriousness of the encounter, the fact that 
     it targeted the Puerto Rican community in and around my 
     District, and growing number of anti-Latino and anti-
     immigrant hate crimes being reported, I demand the Civil 
     Rights Division investigate to see if federal civil rights 
     charges are warranted.
       I would like to remind you of your division's 
     responsibilities which are to enforce federal statutes 
     prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, 
     disability, religion, familial status and national origin.
       I understand this incident on a gut level because almost 
     exactly the same thing happened to me when I was a freshman 
     in Congress. I was denied entry into the Capitol complex by 
     U.S. Capitol Police despite being a Congressman with 
     identification, because my daughter was carrying a Puerto 
     Rican flag and the officer doubted that I could possibly be a 
     Member of Congress. So this kind of incident is unfortunately 
     not unusual and though we did not have viral videos 25 years 
     ago, I wish I had done more then to stop the kind of behavior 
     on display in Ms. Irizarry's video, so that we can prevent 
     the cycles of hatred and bigotry that often repeat themselves 
     today.
       Thank you and I look forward to your response. If you have 
     any questions please contact me or Rafael Hurtado of my 
     staff.
           Sincerely,
                                                Luis V. Gutierrez,
     Member of Congress.

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