[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 102 (Tuesday, June 2, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2642-S2643]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Protests

  Mr. BLUNT. Madam President, today we are on the Senate floor at a 
time when, once again, we are attempting as a country to reconcile 
things that should have been reconciled long ago. The deaths of George 
Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery shocked and outraged the 
country. The three of them, in a very short period of time, brought 
again this division we have in our country where we look at the country 
and particularly look at law enforcement in two different ways.
  The discussion I have had with my sons is different from the 
discussion that many of my African-American friends have had--in fact, 
as far as I know, all of my African-American friends who ever talked to 
me about this have had--with their sons. With my sons, I would say: If 
you get in trouble, look for a police officer.
  That is not the police officer discussion that African-American 
fathers often have with their sons. That discussion goes more like 
this: If you are picked up by the police, do exactly what you are told 
until I get there, and we will straighten it out once I get there.
  Those are the two views of what happens.
  We see in all of these cases some reason to believe that those 
concerns are absolute and legitimate. Because of that, there is a wide 
support for the protests going on around the country. At our leadership 
stakeout today on the Republican side, everybody was great, I think, 
understanding the emotion and empathy, and they talked about the 
importance of peaceful protests as we see these things that have 
happened.
  The problem is we have protests peacefully during the day that turn 
into violence and chaos at night. The peaceful protests shouldn't 
become a cover for violent activity. In fact, one of my good friends 
who planned some protest marches told me today that there has never 
been a peaceful protest march planned for the nighttime. Nighttime is 
not the time for peaceful protest marching. It might be the time for a 
candlelight vigil, but not a time for peaceful protests.
  What we see at night are people who either weren't part of that 
daytime protesting activity or were there in the daytime so they could 
transition to violence and looting at night. It is absolutely 
outrageous and absolutely unacceptable.
  We saw George Floyd's brother yesterday go to the place where his 
brother died and say: If I am not looting, if I am not rioting, if I am 
not destroying other people's property, why would you be doing that?
  He was saying: I lost my brother, and I am not trying to destroy my 
neighborhood because I lost my brother. I am not trying to destroy his 
neighborhood because my brother is gone.
  Yet we see activities happen that are unacceptable on all fronts. 
Last night, in St. Louis, we had four police officers shot in the line 
of duty. Sometime earlier in the day, it had been anticipated that at 
the City Justice Center there would be a planned violent activity. You 
don't manage to shoot four police officers unless you are thinking 
about it and normally thinking about it in advance, but that is what 
happened. Fortunately, those wounds were all survivable.
  I talked to people in the police department in St. Louis today, and 
they had six other events last night where police were shot at during 
the course of the night. We need to realize that the police officers 
who work and the National Guard men and women who are working are out 
there risking their lives trying to protect others. We need

[[Page S2643]]

to realize that when they go to work every day, the members of their 
family have every reason to be concerned all day and every day of what 
might happen. They don't know what door the person they love may be 
asked to knock on, what car they may stop, or what moment may happen 
that makes the difficult life of being in law enforcement even more 
difficult.
  We have certainly seen plenty of tragedies there in recent years, 
too. It hasn't been that long ago that police officers were being 
ambushed routinely and a number of police officers were killed while on 
duty, not while they were trying to apprehend a felon, but when 
somebody just walks up behind them in the car or on the street and 
their life is ended.
  Then we see the horrifying image of George Floyd's murder. We have 
the same fear for people in that situation and the people whom they 
love. In fact, nobody should live in fear in our society of just their 
personal safety--not the law enforcement officers, not their families, 
not people who are peacefully protesting, or people who have violated 
the law and are being arrested, as they should be, but not with the 
result that we saw. Whether that arrest was appropriate or not, no 
arrest is appropriate to decide you are going to be the punishing 
officer as well as the arresting officer.
  Those who are in power should be held accountable. Those who are in 
power should set an example.
  I talked this morning to the police chief in Kansas City, Rick Smith, 
who tomorrow will be joining a unity march with other leaders in the 
community and protesters in the community. Marching along with the 
protesters will be Chief Smith and other officers and other elected 
leaders. That is one way to begin to resolve this.
  I also think, having had some experience with this particular topic, 
that the Justice Department needs to reinstate their full review of 
department pattern and practice. This is something they have walked 
away from in recent years, but in our State we had three departments 
since 2014 that had a full pattern and practice review by the Justice 
Department. At least one of those entered into a consent decree with 
the Department as to how they would focus in the future.
  I think one of those three--St. Louis County--asked for the review. 
St. Louis County, the city of Ferguson, St. Louis city--all believe 
they benefited from that review.
  Reviewing an officer or a number of officers is just often not 
enough, so I am encouraging the Department of Justice to get back to 
having one of the options on the table a full review by the Civil 
Rights Division or some other division in the Justice Department, 
depending on the circumstances, of not only the procedures but also the 
pattern that a department may have fallen into.
  We cannot continue over and over again to have the same thing happen, 
as we as a society try to grapple with the same exact problem. This is 
not a new problem. It is long past the time we should have figured out 
how to deal with it.
  If departments need help in figuring out how to deal with it, that is 
one of the things that--whether it was St. Louis or Baltimore--the 
Justice Department has shown some ability and some success in doing. I 
hope they will look at that again as they look at these three instances 
that I mentioned today and others.
  It is time to move forward. It is well past time to move forward. It 
is a time when people should have a society--have confidence in the 
institutions of the society, and those who serve in law enforcement and 
public assistance of all kinds should also have the appreciation and 
respect that we should have for them, and, of course, that is a 
contract where you earn that respect, but you also get that respect 
when you have earned it, as well over 99.9 percent of those who serve 
every day do.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Boozman). The Senator from Illinois.