[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 129 (Wednesday, July 22, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H3618]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                WE HAVE BEEN WARNED; NOW WHAT DO WE DO?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Himes) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, last Saturday night, Christopher David, a 
veteran of the United States Navy, was walking in Portland when he came 
upon an odd sight: Federal agents, in full tactical gear, heavily 
armed, looking for all the world like the operators that we drop into 
terrorist havens in Afghanistan, patrolling the streets of an American 
city; detaining Americans; hustling them, unexplained, into rented 
minivans.
  Now, is Mr. David a masked ninja of anarchy? No.
  Was he throwing rocks or carrying bottles of gasoline? No.
  Mr. David was curious, and he stood there, clearly unarmed, clearly 
not a threat, curious.
  And here is where it gets interesting, and any American who hasn't 
seen the video needs to look at it right now.
  A Federal agent, gas mask, body armor, camouflage, bristling with 
weapons and tactical gear, approaches Mr. David, winds up, and beats 
Mr. David repeatedly with his truncheon.
  Mr. David doesn't move. His hand has been broken by a Federal agent, 
but he doesn't move, not a muscle.
  Well, the agent is confused by this and he hesitates. But backup 
arrives. Another Federal agent sprays Mr. David repeatedly in the face 
with pepper spray. Now this is heartening to the first agent, so he 
winds up and hits Mr. David again with his bat.
  Now, I don't care how cynical you have become about our country. I 
don't care whether you have signed over your time, your talent, your 
treasure, your integrity to the support of Donald J. Trump. If you have 
a drop of American blood in your veins, your soul dies a little as you 
watch the heavily armed Federal agent beat a United States Navy 
veteran.
  So what are combat-ready Federal agents doing in the streets of a 
city which does not want them there in a State which did not ask for 
them?
  Are there bodies piling up in the streets of Portland?
  Are there 150,000 dead--just to choose a number--Americans in 
Portland? No. There is not a single fatality. Of course not.
  Like so many cities, Portland boiled over in rage at the murder of 
George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department. And, 
yeah, regrettably and illegally a minority of protestors have committed 
acts of vandalism; bottles and rocks have been thrown, windows broken, 
threats made. That is not okay, ever.
  But protecting property in Portland or anywhere else is the job of 
the local police department, the State police and, in a worst-case 
scenario, the National Guard. Why?
  First, while Federal agents are legally entitled to protect Federal 
property, they are not authorized to patrol municipal streets to 
enforce State and local law. That is an idea that goes back to our 
dissatisfaction with King George, and it is an idea that my Republican 
friends used to care about.
  Second, operationally, agents of the Border Patrol and the Marshals 
Service are not trained to manage protests. They are trained to patrol 
borders and to chase fugitives. A heavily armed individual with no 
identification or insignia trundling people, without explanation, into 
an unmarked van is likely to be misunderstood in a way that could lead 
to violence, particularly in a heavily armed society.
  Finally, there is the question of the President's intentions, which 
are pretty clear. We have seen how the President responds to real 
crisis; almost 150,000 Americans dead of COVID-19, denial, 
misinformation.
  We have 5 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of the 
COVID-19 deaths on the planet. That is a disgrace. It is a lethal 
disgrace.
  George Floyd, an unarmed Black American, dies at the hands of the 
police, like so many before him. That is a lethal crisis.
  The President was asked about Black Americans dying at the hands of 
police and he says: ``So are White people; so are White people. What a 
terrible question to ask.''
  And now the President threatens to send heavily armed Federal agents 
to New York, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore. Do we have a problem? No, we 
do not.
  Take it from an unclassified Office of Intelligence and Analysis 
report by the Department of Homeland Security: ``The regularity of 
violence amidst lawful protests in Portland since 26 May contrasts with 
national trends, which reflect a steady decline in violence during the 
last 2 weeks''--``a steady decline in violence during the last 2 
weeks.''
  Mr. Speaker, this is important because democracies die, but they 
don't die fast. They die because people come to believe that the media 
is the enemy of the people. They die because a President's supporters 
are more given over to that President than they are to the rule of law; 
and they die because citizens become used to the sight of Federal 
agents acting, not to protect them, but to attack them.

  We have been warned. The question is: Now what do we do?

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