[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 146 (Monday, September 11, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4339-S4340]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Violent Crime

  Mr. President, on one final matter, violent crime in some American 
cities has grown rampant, even the local media are struggling to keep 
up.
  Last month, a Chicago news crew was filming a story about armed 
robbery when they themselves became the victims of armed robbery. This 
is a city where Democrats recently swapped out a mayor who famously 
refused to let law enforcement do their job for one who called 
defunding the police a ``real political goal.''
  Unfortunately, millions of Americans live under liberal local leaders 
who would rather bend the soft-on-crime radicalism than keep their 
streets safe.
  Last year, here in Washington, the U.S. attorney declined--declined--
to prosecute 67 percent of the cases brought to him by police. In Los 
Angeles, the soft-on-crime DA has tasked his department's investigators 
with escorting staff to and from the office rather than prosecuting the 
criminals who make them feel so unsafe.
  The solution here isn't exactly a mystery. As Washington's former 
police chief, Robert Contee, put it earlier this year, ``We need to 
keep violent people in jail.''
  ``We need to keep violent people in jail.''
  But somehow it took intervention from Congress to stop the radical 
city council from ignoring this lesson and going even softer on crime.
  Well, some Democrats know the chief is right. In Minnesota last week, 
a local liberal official who once supported defunding the police, took 
to social media to urge her city to finally hold repeat offenders 
``accountable for their actions'' after she was savagely beaten in her 
own driveway--her own driveway--by carjackers.
  Here in Washington, Congresswoman Angie Craig, who was attacked 
earlier this year in her own apartment building, has been outspoken 
that ``[w]e have to get these repeat offenders off the streets.''
  It shouldn't have to be like this. The American people don't deserve 
to live in fear. In every city and town, they deserve to feel safe in 
their own streets.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority whip.


          22nd Anniversary of the September 11, 2001, Attacks

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today we take a moment to remember the 
anniversary of September 11, 2001.

[[Page S4340]]

  Many people recall vividly that day where they were. I was in this 
building outside that door and a few steps down the hallway. I can 
recall seeing, on a small television set, the planes striking the 
towers in New York. First, we were confused: What is going on here that 
a plane would strike a building? But when the second one took place, it 
started to dawn on us that this was no longer an accident; it was by 
design.
  I can recall looking down the Mall toward the Washington Monument and 
seeing black smoke billowing across the Mall. It took a few minutes to 
establish what had happened, a plane had crashed into the Pentagon and 
our Department of Defense, killing the innocent people on the plane and 
in that building. What we were seeing was the smoke from the fire of 
that crash.
  It wasn't a few moments afterward that someone came to the door and 
said: Evacuate. Leave the building.
  I have been around Capitol Hill for a number of years. I had never 
heard that before. But we all took it seriously, and we piled out onto 
what was the lawn between here and the Supreme Court Building. And 
people gathered. Tourists came up to me and said: Do you work here?
  I said: Yes.
  They said: Where are we supposed to go? It was a very fundamental 
question because, at that point, we heard sonic booms from the jets 
that were being scrambled to protect this building. We assumed it would 
be the next target. And it might have been were it not for the courage 
of the passengers and crew on that United Airlines flight that was 
brought down in Pennsylvania before it could reach Washington, DC.
  These are memories we all have and will carry for a lifetime of what 
had happened 22 years ago.
  Now, 22 years later, we are connected by sadness as we reflect on 
2,977 lives lost at the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in 
Washington, and that field in Pennsylvania.
  But we also remember the care for our communities and the common 
purpose we found after that tragedy, after the attacks, as our Nation 
sought to find light amidst the darkness. In our most divided moments, 
we should look to that as a reminder that America, as a nation, is at 
its best when we seek unity and humanity over separation and hate.