[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 118 (Friday, June 26, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H2581]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1715
               POLICING IS STATE AND LOCAL RESPONSIBILITY

  (Mr. ARRINGTON asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, the vast majority of law enforcement 
across the country are good. They are competent. They are professional. 
And they serve with integrity. And when they don't, with the immense 
power they have over their fellow citizens, they must be held 
accountable, but that starts at the local level.
  Policing is a State and local responsibility, not a Federal 
responsibility. When local leaders fail to do their job and citizens 
fail to hold them accountable, the system breaks down. You have 
incidences of abuse and, sometimes, cultures of corruption.
  So what is the solution? It is not another top-down, one-size-fits-
all from Washington, D.C.
  We don't need to Federalize policing. We need to hold our local 
leaders accountable. We need to come alongside of them at all levels of 
government to make sure that we don't recycle the bad actors. So we get 
rid of them. And if we do, then the 1 percent won't take the 99 percent 
that are protecting and serving us and risking their lives to do so.

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