[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 115 (Tuesday, June 23, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3152-S3153]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
The JUSTICE Act
Mr. BROWN. Thank you, Mr. President. Thousands of Americans are
protesting in communities across our country demanding that our country
be better. The protests are an expression of grief for Ms. Taylor and
Mr. Floyd and Mr. Arbery and Mr. Brooks and so many other Black
Americans murdered by the people who are supposed to protect them. They
are an expression of frustration and anger. It is 2020. It is the year
2020, a century and a half after the official end of slavery, five and
a half decades after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, and still
Black Americans are fighting the same fight. They are also an
expression of hope against racism. We demand that our country do
better. Demanding that we live up to our founding ideals is one of the
most patriotic things anyone can do.
We need to listen to the Black voices leading these calls for justice
and take real action. That is what Democrats want to do, and my
colleagues Senator Harris and Senator Booker and the Congressional
Black Caucus in the House have led bicameral efforts and have a serious
plan, the Justice in Policing Act. Everybody knows it is a serious
plan--everybody. It would implement real, meaningful reform. It would
actually hold police accountable. It makes clear: no more choke holds,
no more unchecked police misconduct, no more militarization of police.
Of course, we know this isn't the only thing we need to do. Policing
didn't create institutional racism; it is a product of it and often
reinforces it. We have a lot of work to do beyond this, but these
reforms are an important start to making policing in our country more
just.
The Justice in Policing Act would create real change in our justice
system, and communities across the country can't afford for us to not
act on this meaningful legislation. What we cannot do is pass something
just called police reform that does so little to actually reform
policing and then turn around and tell Black mothers and fathers whose
children who have been slain: See, we solved it. Our work here is done.
I respect Senator Scott, and I appreciate his coming to the table and
taking on this issue. I know he is fighting an uphill battle with his
own caucus. I know that. So many on his side of the aisle don't want to
do anything, but they think they need to check the box.
I want to work with Senator Scott and with anyone of either party on
real solutions. All of us on our side do. But I am not willing to
participate in a political charade to vote on something that has no
chance to lead to real change. It just checks a box and provides
politicians with a talking point. It is an insult to Black families who
have been fed empty promise after empty promise, year after year,
decade after decade, generation after generation.
We need to listen to the communities that suffer the most at the
hands of police violence. They all agree that the Senate Republican
bill is simply not serious. It will not fix the problems. We will be
right back here sooner rather than later. Virtually every major civil
rights group opposes this bill: the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; the Urban
League; the Young Women's Christian Association, one of the most
important civil rights and women's rights organizations in the country.
It doesn't ban no-knock warrants; the Justice in Policing Act does.
It doesn't stop the militarization of police departments; the Justice
in Policing Act does. It doesn't create a national misconduct registry;
the Justice in Policing Act does. It doesn't ban choke holds; the
Justice in Policing Act does. These are all steps that civil rights
groups have said are critical to any reform effort. It is the bare
minimum.
All this bill offers is more studies of questions we already know the
answers to. We don't need more studies. We don't need more task forces.
We don't need, as Senator McConnell specializes in, more delaying
tactics. We need accountability. The JUSTICE Act even puts us in danger
of moving in the opposite direction by providing more funding for
policing without adequate rules and regulations and without a similar
investment in community support.
The NAACP says this bill ``ignores the public demands to reimagine
public safety by shrinking the purview of law enforcement and providing
better funding to agencies equipped to address the critical needs of
communities such as social services, mental health services, and
education.''
The Urban League says this Scott bill ``dances around the edges in a
show of political posturing.''
We refuse to engage in that political posturing. We refuse to act
like it is just a box we check and then we can move on. We refuse to
insult Black Americans by pretending--pretending--this is a serious
effort. People have suffered too long for that.
We have been here before. This isn't the first wave of protests or
the second. In 2014, after the murders of Tamir Rice in my city of
Cleveland and Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, President Obama's
legislation laid important groundwork for reform. They studied what
reforms would be most effective. They instituted consent decrees with
cities to hold departments accountable, and they created a roadmap we
could follow. But President Trump undid much of the progress the Obama
administration made.
The Urban League put out a plan for reform around the time of the
murder of Tamir Rice after Michael Brown's murder in 2014. Since then,
nearly 1,300 Black men and women--think of that--more than 1,300 Black
men and women have been fatally shot by the police since the deaths of
Michael Brown and Tamir Rice 6 years ago. This bill does nothing to
stop the practices that killed them.
Black Americans know their lives are put in danger by police every
day. We must listen to them. People all around the country--Black and
White and Brown, in small towns and big cities, young and old--are
listening, waking up, and joining the calls for change. The peaceful
demonstrations and protests all over my State in Black and White
neighborhoods and integrated communities and small towns and rural
Ohio, in big cities, in suburbs everywhere--let's follow their lead.
Let's actually hear the voices that have been silenced for too long.
I urge my colleagues to vote no and, instead, to work with us on
real, meaningful reform to transform our public safety system into one
that actually keeps people safe
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I rise today to address the nationwide
call for reasonable, sensible police reforms. Last month, the American
people watched in horror as a police officer kneeled down on the neck
of George Floyd for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, killing him.
``I can't breathe.'' It was a slow execution caught on video, a
metaphor for the systematic racism and injustices Black and Brown
communities endure every day. But unlike other horrific videos of
police killings that have sparked protests, this feels different. This
is a moment when people of all races and walks of life have taken to
[[Page S3153]]
the streets in cities and communities across the country. They are
crying out: Enough is enough.
It is time for us to address the institutional racism, economic,
societal, and environmental inequities and injustice that have plagued
this Nation since its founding. The American people are demanding real,
meaningful change--bold, comprehensive action that starts by reforming
our police system that has historically dealt a heavier hand toward
communities of color.
What did the Republican majority do to answer the public's plea? They
have offered the American people the JUSTICE Act. They call it justice,
but justice for whom? This bill fails to meet this moment in history
before us. It offers only lip service to the families of George Floyd
and Breonna Taylor and Tamir Rice and Eric Garner and all of those
tragically lost at the hands of the police.
The Republican JUSTICE Act is nothing more than a glorified
suggestion box filled with half measures and placations that sound good
on paper but simply will not deliver the real change the American
people are demanding from this body. There is no justice in the JUSTICE
Act; rather, it is a wholly inadequate response to the injustices faced
by Black and Brown communities at the hands of the police. It merely
asks, suggests, recommends, and encourages. It says to law enforcement:
Hey, would you mind? Could you kindly? Do you think you might be able?
Nowhere in this bill does it compel, require, mandate, or insist upon
the commonsense structural reforms the American people are demanding.
The JUSTICE Act calls for reports and a commission, but we have had 400
years to study the stain of slavery and institutional racism in this
country. We don't need a study to tell us that too many young Black men
are dying at the hands of the police or that you are more likely to be
shot and killed by the police if you are Black than White. A commission
will not save the life of the next George Floyd.
My Republican colleagues may think that the American people will
praise them for passing an empty bill named ``JUSTICE'' that does no
justice to the deep-seated, systemic failures in our policing system.
They are mistaken.
Indeed, I would encourage my Republican colleagues to consider the
Justice in Policing Act, led by Senators Booker and Harris, which I am
proud to cosponsor. It requires a comprehensive set of reforms designed
to increase police accountability, improve transparency, and invest in
training. The Justice in Policing Act bans no-knock warrants in drug
cases, the kind that led to Breonna Taylor's death. It establishes a
national public registry on police misconduct so that the bad actors
who make it harder for the good cops to do their jobs can't just move
from department to department. Our bill requires data collection and
publication on the use of force. The Republican bill does none of those
things. While the Justice in Policing Act bans deadly choke holds and
other tactics that restrict blood flow to the brain, the Republican
bill stops short of any such ban.
The JUSTICE Act is also silent on racial profiling and the
militarization of local police departments. It is silent on funding
independent investigative channels to prosecute police misconduct and
fails to strengthen pattern and practice investigations. It fails to
establish national standards for police misconduct. While it would
provide additional money to law enforcement, it does so without
actually requiring any substantive change, so it fails us. The JUSTICE
Act fails to create a system of policing that is about community safety
and equal application of the law.
So, again, I ask my friends on the other side of the aisle: Where is
the actual justice? Where is the justice for Breonna Taylor, George
Floyd? Where is the justice for those murders that were not captured on
video? Where is the justice for thousands of Black men sitting in
prison, victims of overpolicing and racial profiling?
Senator McConnell would have us think that the JUSTICE Act is our
only option, that if we don't acquiesce to these half measures, then we
don't really want reform. That is simply not true.
It seems to me that the Republicans and the President don't want real
reform. They want window dressing and fresh paint instead of fixing the
very foundation on which our policing system stands. They want to say
that they did something without actually doing anything meaningful.
They want to blame Democrats for holding out for real justice and
refusing to play these political games with people's lives.
The House is going to pass the Justice in Policing Act on Thursday. I
urge Senator McConnell to take up that bill so that we can have the
meaningful conversation on police reform our constituents and the
Nation are demanding.
We know that reform can work. Camden, NJ, offers us concrete evidence
about what we can accomplish when we get serious about making real
changes. With one of the highest murder rates in the Nation, excessive
force complaints were dramatically reduced, both in terms of homicides
and excessive force issues.
So before I close, let me make perfectly clear the profound respect
that I have for the men and women in law enforcement. Policing is a
very tough job, and the vast majority of officers go out and perform
their jobs every day with dignity and professionalism and care for the
people in the communities in which they serve. I am deeply grateful for
their service throughout the State of New Jersey and, indeed,
throughout the Nation. These officers, who do their jobs with dignity
and respect for the people they serve, share our demands for real
change. In fact, in Camden itself, a White chief of police joined with
hundreds of protesters who were marching for change.
Across the country, tens of thousands of Americans did not brave a
pandemic and endure being shot at with rubber bullets and tear gas just
so that Congress could create another commission and mandate another
report. They demand that their elected officials in Washington meet
this moment in history and actually do something that lives up to the
American promise of a nation where every man and woman, regardless of
their race, ethnicity, gender, or orientation, is treated equally--
equally under the law.
I will just close by saying that the Nation will rue the day it
answered the call for reform with business as usual. There will be a
rude awakening. Who among us--who among us, if this were our daily
experience, would be satisfied with the counsels of patience and delay?
Who among us?
The American people are calling for real justice. We should listen.
We should act, and we should deliver real justice.
With that, I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.