[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 166 (Thursday, September 24, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H4952-H4955]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1800
                             COLOR OF CRIME

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise. And still I rise 
in the name of liberty and justice for all. And still I rise in the 
name of justice for Breonna Taylor.
  Mr. Speaker, there are many questions to be answered, critical 
questions to be answered. In this case there has been no indictment, 
nor arrest. There are unanswered questions. Who killed Breonna Taylor? 
Was the warrant properly executed? But there are some more questions 
that are quite critical.
  Is the system of justice in this Nation broken, or is it doing what 
it was designed to do? Was Breonna Taylor's death a tragedy, as has 
been announced and published far and wide? Or was her death a tragedy 
that was, in fact, a crime?
  And still I rise to address the issues associated with Breonna 
Taylor's death.
  First, let me simply say this: Breonna Taylor was a young woman. She 
was loved by many, especially those who were very close, such as her 
mom, who thought she was easy to love. She was a person who finished 
high school and attended college.
  We have heard none of the things that one might hear in cases such as 
these, because it is usually immediately published, the things about 
the person that are newsworthy with reference to their character. Her 
character has not been displayed in a negative way.
  So I rise today because Breonna Taylor was a 26-year-old African-
American woman. Breonna Taylor was an innocent person in her home at 
the midnight hour. She was unarmed. She committed no crime. Breonna 
Taylor was doing what most people in this country do at the midnight 
hour. Yet, Breonna Taylor is no longer with us.
  And the question that I posed earlier and I pose now is this, Breonna 
Taylor was a Black woman, but the question is: If Breonna Taylor were a 
26-year-old innocent, unarmed White woman who was killed in the middle 
of the night when Black police officers intruded into her home, would 
her death be a simple tragedy or would it be a crime to be prosecuted?
  To answer this question, I think we have to examine the color of 
crime.
  The color of crime dates back to the arrival of Africans in the 
Americas. At one time when Africans were first brought to this country, 
they were slaves, and as slaves the White masters had the right to hold 
them in bondage. But the slave committed a crime if the slave sought 
freedom. To seek freedom, to seek the liberty and the justice that we 
hold so near and dear, was a crime for the slave. The slave was Black. 
That crime was relegated to the Black slaves. Slavery was a crime that 
had color associated with it.
  Let us move forward. After slavery was abolished with the 13th 
Amendment--the Emancipation Proclamation

[[Page H4953]]

was a great document, but it was the 13th Amendment that freed the 
slaves. And after the 13th Amendment was passed, the slaves were left 
to privation. They were left without the necessities of life. They were 
dependent on the very people that enslaved them. And as such, being 
dependent on the very people that enslaved them, they had few choices 
when it came to employment.
  But employing them was not enough for the slave masters, they used 
the color of crime to keep them in bondage. They employed the use of 
Black codes. They made it a crime to be a vagrant. To have no job was a 
crime. The people who enslaved them were the people who denied them 
jobs, and the people who inculcated, passed laws, that made it possible 
for them to be arrested for not having a job.
  This was a Black code. The color of crime was Black. The Black codes 
also saw something else come into being, something that Texas has had 
some dealings with as of late. Convict leasing. A person who was caught 
and accused of a minor crime, they had something called Pig Laws. Steal 
a pig, some minor crime, they would be punished, found guilty and 
punished, and required to be leased to another person. Just another 
form of bondage. Just another form of slavery.
  In Houston, we had 95 such persons found near a school in Sugar Land, 
Texas. The Sugar Land 95. They were persons who were slaves by another 
name. They were leased. There was a color associated with crime.
  And we move forward, if we may, to today. We find that we have this 
question before us. If Breonna Taylor were a White woman, would she be 
alive today, or would the persons who perpetrated this crime against 
her be punished? Would they have to be held accountable?
  And I ask you, if, in your mind, you conclude that a White woman 
under the same circumstances, with three Black officers associated with 
her demise, would there be more than a tragedy? Would it be a crime? 
And, if, in your mind you say, yes, then you understand now some of 
what the color of crime is all about, because we are looking at two 
people, same facts, one with a darker hue than the other. And as a 
result, there are a good many people, and I am among them, who believe 
that her color had much to do with her demise and the lack of 
accountability.
  Her color was something that does not receive the same level of 
respect that persons of a lighter hue receive. She had no gun. She 
didn't fire on the officers. She was in her home. Yet, the officers 
fired and the bullets hit her multiple times.
  In this society, the lack of the same respect for people of color as 
is given people who are of a lighter hue is evident. It is evident in 
the financial services industry. It is evident in banking. Persons who 
are of African ancestry, who are more qualified than persons who are 
what we refer to as White in this country, of European ancestry, they 
can apply for loans. Black people, more qualified, will get less in a 
loan, or have a higher interest rate. It has been documented.
  There is a color associated with lending in this country. And this 
color allows people to steal the future of Black people. Their futures 
are dependent upon what we call bootstraps. Bootstraps are loans. 
People buy homes with loans. People go into businesses with loans. 
Black people are being denied loans to a greater extent than some White 
people who are less qualified for the loans that they eventually get. 
So the color of crime is in the financial services industry.

  But the color of crime is also in policing. Not all police officers 
are bad. I absolutely deplore what happened to the police officers in 
Kentucky recently who were shot. The people who committed these crimes, 
if there were multiple people, they should be arrested, they should be 
prosecuted. And there is a good likelihood that they will be arrested 
and prosecuted. And there is a good likelihood that their arrest will 
take place rather quickly, and the prosecution will proceed with 
deliberate speed. There is a good likelihood that if you hurt a police 
officer, you are going to receive swift justice.
  But in policing, the color of one's skin has consistently 
demonstrated that there is a different standard of behavior that 
emanates from some police officers, not all. But because some do it, 
and not all are involved in this, we cannot allow ourselves to say that 
all police officers are bad. I don't agree with this.
  But I also think that we cannot be put in a position such that we 
can't talk about the police officers who are bad, because somehow 
people will conclude you are talking about those who are good. I'm not. 
I want to talk about the officers who do dastardly deeds under the 
color of the law. And these officers understand, many of them that do 
these things, without having been told in the academy, without having 
to discuss it among themselves, they understand that Black people in 
this society do not get the same level of respect as White people.
  And as a result of not getting the same level of respect, as a result 
of not having the same consequences accorded people who hurt Black 
people as those who would hurt a White person, it is understood within 
the psyche that White officers, Black officers, regardless of their 
color, they can do things to Black people and escape the level of 
punishment that they would get if they performed these same insidious 
acts on White people.
  If officers were properly punished, George Floyd would still be 
alive. If officers were properly punished, I believe that Breonna 
Taylor would be alive. And if, by chance, she had lost her life, as she 
has, if they were properly punished, there would be something more to 
be accorded in this case other than a simple indication that it was a 
tragedy.
  It was a tragedy because she was Black. It was a tragedy because she 
was born of a different hue, a darker hue. If she had been born a White 
woman in this society, the rules would be different. Not the rules that 
had been codified, but the rules that have been inculcated into the 
psyche, into the minds of people who happen to wear a badge and carry a 
gun.

                              {time}  1815

  Let's just talk about whether the system is broken or whether it is 
functioning as created. The system employs the grand jury. It is said 
that the prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich. But what is not said is 
this: That same prosecutor can exonerate a ham sandwich.
  The prosecutor can present a case without any defense lawyer being 
present, present a case and decide which witnesses will be called, 
generally speaking. In so doing, the prosecutor frames the case, and 
the prosecutor leads the grand jury.
  When the prosecutor wants an indictment and believes that an 
indictment should be had, an indictment is generally had in the case. 
The prosecutor has the ability to lead a grand jury.
  This system, while it has great benefits, also has its flaws because 
the prosecutors will tell you what happens within the grand jury room 
cannot be discussed. You can't talk about it. It is secreted. That is a 
means by which the truth doesn't always get out.
  So, the prosecutor can use the grand jury as a means of allowing a 
guilty person to go free by contending that the grand jury decided that 
the person should not be indicted. It is the prosecutor who can indict 
the ham sandwich, and it is the prosecutor who can exonerate the ham 
sandwich.
  I believe that we have a challenge in this country, the challenge 
probably of our time for these seminal moments in time. The challenge 
has to do with whether we are going to do something about this color of 
crime and this systemic racism that exists.
  Are we going to simply talk about it and decry it when each case 
arises, silo the case, and then move on to the next? Or are we going to 
commit ourselves to eliminating invidious discrimination in all of its 
forms as it relates to anti-Semitism, as it relates to racism, as it 
relates to xenophobia and Islamophobia, as it relates to transphobia, 
all the invidious phobias? Are we going to commit ourselves?
  The way to commit ourselves, to have the public know we are 
committed, and to move us forward so that the color of one's skin will 
not determine your worth when it comes to the behavior of some people 
in this society as they interact with you, if we are going to do this, 
then we have to have a reconciliation.
  We have not reconciled in this country. We have not reconciled. We 
have

[[Page H4954]]

not settled the differences that were created as a result of people 
being held in human bondage. We haven't reconciled. We haven't made it 
such that those persons who were enslaved can now have equal 
opportunities within this society.
  Equal opportunity is something I strive for, but it doesn't exist for 
people of color. It doesn't exist for some other people as well, not 
just people of color.
  One of the things that we learned at my committee was that LGBTQ 
persons, if they go in for a loan, they, too, are discriminated 
against. Two gay people, a man who is married to another man, they are 
discriminated against.
  Discrimination of this type has to be eliminated. The way to commit 
ourselves to the elimination of all forms of invidious discrimination 
is with a department, a department of reconciliation, a department with 
a secretary of reconciliation, a secretary of reconciliation who 
reports directly to the President of the United States of America. We 
can do this. The question is, do we have the will to do it, a 
department of reconciliation with a budget, a budget that will allow 
persons to become a part of this department as under secretaries?
  This department can take up the issue of reparations. This department 
can take up the issue of a truth commission so as to gather all the 
necessary truths and facts about what has happened to African Americans 
in the United States of America. We need a department of 
reconciliation.
  This challenge is something that is applicable to you, regardless of 
your party. It doesn't matter whether you are a Democrat or a 
Republican. What matters is, will we move forward with a department of 
reconciliation?
  It doesn't matter which President we are talking about or which 
candidate we are talking about. Every candidate ought to be held 
responsible for answering the question: Will you agree to a department 
of reconciliation?
  Every candidate, it doesn't matter whether you are liberal or 
conservative, the question is: Will you agree to a department of 
reconciliation?
  I say to you, the candidate who says this is going to find that there 
are many people who are going to have favor bestowed upon this 
candidate such that the candidate will benefit greatly in November.
  But there must be reconciliation, and the best way is through a 
department of reconciliation.
  Now, to the family of Ms. Taylor, I have never met you, but I assure 
you that I will not let her death go unnoticed. This House of 
Representatives is going to have it called to their attention on 
multiple occasions. We cannot tolerate this kind of behavior. If we 
tolerate it, we perpetuate it.
  I plan to go to Kentucky. I want to see what happened in this place 
where she resided. I want to see the facility. This is important. We 
cannot allow her name to be a momentary announcement and then go on to 
the next thing that causes a good deal of shame. We can't do it.
  To these officers who were shot and their families, I want you to 
know that I stand against people who shoot police officers simply 
because of who they are, who commit crimes against police officers. 
Innocent peace officers, police officers, deserve the same level of 
respect that other citizens who are innocent deserve.
  Officers ought not be assaulted simply because they are members of a 
police force. I absolutely oppose it, and I absolutely support peaceful 
protest, not these protesters who believe that they have to destroy 
things. I believe you can be disruptive without being destructive.
  Peaceful protest is about being disruptive, yes. Sometimes, people go 
to jail. Dr. King went to jail for peaceful protest. John Lewis went to 
jail for peaceful protest. I have been to jail many times for peaceful 
protest, being disruptive without being destructive.

  I want the families of the officers to know that I stand with you. I 
want you to know that I want justice for those who have hurt these 
officers.
  Officers, I want you to know this, as well. My uncle was a deputy 
sheriff. I understand a lot about law enforcement. I was a judge of a 
justice court. I am a lawyer. So, I appreciate law enforcement.
  What I don't appreciate is what happened to Breonna Taylor. I don't 
appreciate a system that allows a prosecutor to lay the blame for lack 
of justice at the feet, at the hands, of a grand jury.
  The grand jury system has to be reevaluated. This notion that it is 
secreted and that we will never know what happened before the grand 
jury--there are ways to find out, I am sure. In fact, I know that there 
are, but in most cases, you can't or you don't.
  The system has to be reevaluated because the lack of transparency 
causes people to believe that this system is hiding something that is a 
part of covering up the wrongs that are being perpetrated against Black 
people and others, as well.
  We have to examine the system. That doesn't mean that we have to 
eliminate the police departments. I don't want to eliminate police 
departments. I would never agree to eliminating the police departments. 
I believe you have to have policing in your community, so I am for 
policing. But I am for people being treated with dignity and respect at 
all times, even when you are performing the act of policing.
  Tonight, I believe that on March 13, 2020, when Ms. Taylor lost her 
life, a 26-year-old Black woman, I believe that if she had been a 26-
year-old White woman with the same circumstances, my belief is that she 
would probably not have lost her life.
  But let's assume that she would have. Then, I believe that there 
would be accountability because I believe there is color associated 
with crime and that people who enforce the laws don't give the same 
level of attention to a Black person who is the victim of a crime as 
they do to White people. Not all the time, by the way. Not all the 
time. But in critical circumstances, it happens far too often, and we 
have to do something about it.
  I am committed to bringing about this level of change. I don't know 
whether it will happen on my watch, but I do know this: On my watch, I 
will not be silent. On my watch, I will stand even if I have to stand 
alone because it is better to stand alone than not stand at all.
  We have some difficult days ahead. Dr. King reminded us of this. But 
we are seeing the difficulties manifest themselves before us on a daily 
basis--difficult days ahead.
  I spoke about the color of crime. Let's talk about it just one more 
time as it relates to voting. It is intuitively obvious to even the 
most casual observer that there are efforts to suppress the vote, and 
these efforts to suppress the vote have a greater impact on Black 
people than they do a good many others.
  Black people and brown people, minorities, this effort to suppress 
their vote is evident, self-evident. I believe that we who hold public 
trust must do something to prevent what is about to happen, to the 
extent that we can.
  I don't know that we can do what really should be done because of the 
tug of war between the parties, but I do know that we have to try. We 
have to make every person's vote count in this country and give every 
person the opportunity to get registered to vote.
  There are people who are doing their very best to circumvent the 
registration and participation of minorities in this system of voting. 
This system of voting is something that we cherish and that we have to 
exercise. As my dear friend John Lewis put it, it is something that you 
must use, and, he intimated, if not, you may lose this precious right 
to vote.

                              {time}  1830

  So we have to exercise this right, but let us be realistic and 
acknowledge that there are people who are doing their best to suppress 
the rights of minorities when it comes to voting.
  Remember, this is a country that had to pass the 13th Amendment to 
free people who were held in bondage. This is a country that had to 
pass a constitutional amendment to accord people who were held in 
bondage this right of citizenship and then the right to vote. The 13th, 
14th, and 15th Amendments are important to people of color.
  So I say to everyone, there is color associated with criminality in 
the sense that people who are charged with enforcing the laws don't 
provide equal protection under the laws to all of the people in this 
country.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to say to my friends who are charged with the 
responsibility of enforcing the laws in

[[Page H4955]]

Houston, Texas, I want to say to them, in Houston, Texas, there was a 
case that is still pending.
  This is the case of Joshua Johnson. Joshua Johnson lost his life 
under questionable circumstances. The case is still being investigated, 
and the lack of transparency is something that concerns me as it 
relates to Joshua Johnson.
  Joshua Johnson lived in the Ninth Congressional District. I happen to 
represent the Ninth Congressional District.
  Joshua Johnson: killed under questionable circumstances.
  We have the same system in place where there is a grand jury and a 
prosecutor, that I have great respect for, but we still have this same 
system. But Texas has a solution that is different from any other State 
in the country. There is no other State that has the solution that we 
have in Texas for these kinds of questionable killings.
  In Texas, we have the opportunity to take such a case and move it 
through a justice system that has a court involved in it, as opposed to 
the grand jury, in the initial aspects of it, or it can be after the 
grand jury has given a ruling.
  In Texas, we have the opportunity to go to a district court judge and 
present probable cause, and if that judge concludes that there is 
probable cause, that judge goes to an administrative judge, and the 
administrative judge can then appoint a judge to have a court of review 
to review what happened in this case.
  It is time for us to look at something similar to this on the 
national level for our Nation.
  I believe that a court of inquiry--which is what it is called in 
Texas. It reviews evidence. But a court of inquiry can make a 
difference on the national level, and, as a result, I plan to introduce 
legislation for us to have courts of inquiry at the national level so 
that we don't have to depend on prosecutors and grand juries.
  A court of inquiry in Texas allows any citizen who knows that a crime 
has been committed to present this evidence to a district court judge.
  I believe a similar circumstance--maybe not the same--ought to exist 
for people when it comes to Federal crimes. So I will introduce 
legislation calling for courts of inquiry across the length and breadth 
of this country so that we may have transparency in this process.
  I will not seek to eliminate the grand juries, but I will seek to 
give an alternative for citizens who are concerned about transparency 
when there are questionable circumstances, when you don't have body 
cameras, when you have persons who are committing no crimes yet find 
themselves losing their lives at the hands of the constabulary.
  I hope to have this legislation ready for this Congress, but if not, 
it will definitely be introduced for the next Congress. We need courts 
of inquiry or something similar to what we have in Texas.
  I love my country. It means something to me to say that I am a part 
of this great country. I love it, and I do everything out of love for 
country and a belief that there should be liberty and justice for all, 
regardless of who you happen to be, regardless of your race, creed, 
color, or national origin.
  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the time. I thank the leadership for giving 
me the opportunity to have this time on the floor.
  I promise that I am going to do as much as I can to eliminate 
invidious discrimination in all of its forms.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________