[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 159 (Tuesday, September 15, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S5578]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                PROTESTS

  Madam President, now, one final matter. For months now, it has been 
clear to basically every reasonable American that our country can and 
must hold two sets of true statements in our minds at the same time.
  No. 1, our country has unfinished work to ensure that policing is 
fair to everyone and that Black Americans do not feel unfairly treated 
or targeted by law enforcement. And, No. 2, the vast majority of law 
enforcement officers are heroes, and the toxicity, anger, and actual 
violence that far-left mobs have inflicted on police men and women 
across our country is simply beyond the pale.
  The American people want racial justice, and we want good, strong 
policing to ensure equal protection of the laws. We understand there is 
no contradiction here--none whatsoever. Most people are outraged by the 
killings of Black Americans that have shocked our country.
  Sunday marked 6 months since the death of Breonna Taylor in my 
hometown of Louisville, KY. Our people want answers. Our Nation wants 
answers. Most Americans also feel sick when they hear about events like 
what happened last weekend in Los Angeles. Two sheriff's deputies were 
ambushed and shot while they sat in their patrol car in Compton. And 
then far-left protesters tried to literally block--block--an entrance 
to the hospital chanting things like ``kill the police'' and ``I hope 
they [effing] die.''
  Fortunately, both deputies are out of surgery, but the hateful 
climate that creates these acts is still with us. One of our two 
political parties should do more to repudiate the underlying climate on 
their side.
  To be clear, Democratic leaders, including Vice President Biden and 
our colleague like the junior Senator from California, spoke up quickly 
to condemn the actual shootings of these officers themselves. That was 
absolutely the right thing to do--no question. But what about the 
underlying climate? For months, the political left in this country has 
put all its might behind a false narrative that says disorder is 
acceptable, riots are free speech, and law enforcement is the real 
enemy of certain communities.
  One prominent national newspaper, which found a straightforward op-ed 
from our colleague, Senator Cotton, to be more than they could bear, 
had no problem publishing a submission entitled, ``Yes, We Mean 
Literally Abolish the Police.'' No problem publishing that--``Yes, We 
Mean Literally Abolish the Police.''
  When the Speaker of the House was asked to respond to rioters 
illegally toppling statues across the country, she blithely responded: 
``People will do what they will do.'' That was about the topic of 
statues. From one liberal big city to another, we have seen mayors and 
local leaders who apparently find it easier to propose cutting police 
funding and criticize their men and women in uniform than to denounce 
out-of-control riots in their very own cities.
  Just yesterday, with this Los Angeles story making headlines 
nationwide, the junior Senator from Massachusetts decided to criticize 
police officers on his Twitter feed and proposed a nationwide ban on 
nonlethal measures like tear gas and rubber bullets--a nationwide ban 
on nonlethal measures like tear gas and rubber bullets.
  We are now at a point where some of our Democratic colleagues survey 
the Nation, survey the way law enforcement officers are being treated, 
and decide the answer is to keep rhetorically throwing cops under the 
bus--throwing them under the bus--and try to ban their nonlethal means 
of self-defense while they are at it.
  The American people don't have any trouble rejecting terrible racism 
and discrimination and rejecting lawlessness, violence, and anti-police 
prejudice with equal clarity and equal force. They deserve leaders who 
can do likewise.

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