[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 19 (Monday, January 30, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S151-S152]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          POLICING IN AMERICA

  Mr. SCOTT of South Carolina. Mr. President, yesterday on ABC's ``This 
Week,'' Senator Durbin asked Senator Booker and me to come back to the 
table and start talking about policing in America.
  I never left the table, but it was Senator Durbin who filibustered my 
JUSTICE Act. It was Senator Durbin who called the effort to make 
deescalation training more available a ``token'' piece of legislation. 
It was indeed the Senator from Illinois who said that aspects of my 
JUSTICE Act which talked about the importance of the duty to intervene 
was a ``token'' piece of legislation.
  In that legislation we had more resources for more training because 
we want only the best wearing the badge in every location, in every 
municipality, in every county, and in every State in this great Nation. 
But politics too often gets in the way in doing what every American 
knows is common sense, and here we find ourselves, again, having this 
same conversation with no action having happened so far.
  I don't speak on this floor very often, but this is my 10th speech on 
policing

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in America in 8 years--the 10th time I have asked for something that 
will make our officers better and safer and make our communities better 
and safer. It is another time I have asked for more resources for 
recruitment so that we can have only the best wearing the badge, but 
this legislative body--the greatest deliberative body in the world--
didn't act.
  It was in 2015, shortly after the shooting of Walter Scott, who was 
shot in the back in my hometown of Charleston, SC, that I came to this 
floor to ask for more resources for body-worn cameras so that we 
capture what happens during those vital times, and not a single 
Democrat cosponsored that legislation.
  I came back a year later, in 2016, and gave three speeches on the 
importance of policing in America.
  In 2020, on June 17, I introduced the JUSTICE Act with more requests 
for what I believe is common sense. It was 70 percent of what the House 
Democrats were asking for. We, on our side of the aisle, said: This 
makes sense. Why don't we find common ground in that 70 percent, make 
it into a piece of legislation and show the American people that, yes, 
their elected officials can, at times, act with common sense--because 
my assumption was that common ground leads to common sense.
  Imagine my disappointment when the duty to intervene, deescalation 
training, more resources, more reporting so that we have eyes around 
the country was filibustered in this Chamber with not enough votes to 
even extend the conversation on the important issue of policing in 
America.
  I came back just a week later, on June 24, standing on this floor 
asking our body to take seriously our responsibility on the important 
topic of policing in America. What I said that day on June 24, 2020, 
was that ``there is trouble coming.'' I referred to the Good Book, the 
Bible, and reflected on Ezekiel 33:6 that says that when you see 
trouble coming and you say nothing, you do nothing, the blood that 
comes is on your hands. But if you shout from the mountaintops, if you 
warn the people that trouble is coming, it is not on your hands.
  Mr. President, our Nation is reeling. People--Republicans, Democrats, 
Independents, nonaffiliates, Black folks, White folks, rich folks, poor 
folks, Southerners, Northerners, the west coast and the east coast--are 
sick and tired of politics as usual.
  We, as a nation, deserve better. We should be able to build a 
coalition around the common ground of, yes, we need more training on 
deescalation; yes, we need more resources and training on the duty to 
intervene; yes, we need more grants; and yes, we need the best wearing 
the badge.
  We should have simple legislation that we can agree upon that has 
been agreed upon in the past, but too often too many are too concerned 
with who gets the credit.
  I know that when a conservative Republican starts talking about 
policing in America, some people seem to just turn the channel. That is 
wrong.
  When I came to the floor and talked about my many unnecessary 
incidents with the police; when I came to the floor and talked about 
the man, Walter Scott, shot in my city; when I came to this floor on 
June 17 and talked about the massacre at Mother Emanuel Church in my 
hometown--I take the issue of policing in America seriously. I want our 
body to see it not as an issue of Republicans versus Democrats but as 
good people standing in the gap, elected to do a job that we all ran to 
do. Let's do our jobs.
  We can make a difference in this Nation. Had the duty to intervene 
been law of the land on the Federal level, it could have made a 
difference in Memphis, TN. In Wisconsin, more deescalation training 
could make a difference.
  I hope that when the dust settles and the issue is no longer on the 
front pages of our newspapers, no longer streaming across our TVs and 
our iPads and our computers, that we do something that says to the 
American people: We see your pain. We are willing to put our partisan 
labels and shirts and uniforms on the side so that we can do what needs 
to be done. That is what the people deserve.
  I yield the floor.

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