[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 85 (Thursday, May 16, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H3277-H3278]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CELEBRATING POLICE WEEK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Espaillat) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ESPAILLAT. Madam Speaker, today and this week has been Police 
Week here in Washington, D.C. We saw how hundreds of police officers 
came to the Nation's Capital to be recognized and to be honored for 
their service across neighborhoods and cities and States of this great 
Nation.
  Police officers respond to crises, to a violent situation, to a 
family conflict, and to someone brandishing a weapon.
  It is not often that a police officer responds to a friendly 
situation. They respond to conflict, so they put their lives in harm's 
way for all of us in America.
  Neighborhoods across the country expect police officers to show up 
when they call upon them to protect them.
  This week is the week where we stand up here in the Nation's Capitol 
and recognize the men and women in uniform that protect our families, 
our neighborhoods, our cities, and our States.
  For us here in the House of Representatives, and for me in 
particular, I am forever grateful to the heroic officers who protected 
the Capitol.

  I will forever remember the 140 officers who were injured and the 
five who lost their lives as a result of the attack on January 6 right 
in this Chamber.
  They didn't determine whether the Member was a Republican Member or 
whether the Member was a Democrat Member.
  They came to protect our lives, and in many ways, they also showed up 
here confronting a violent, racist mob to protect democracy, to protect 
the House of Representatives, and on the other side, to protect the 
Senate.

[[Page H3278]]

  I take this opportunity, Madam Speaker, to recognize the officers 
that lost their lives: Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who 
died from causes the day after the attack; Howard Liebengood from the 
Capitol Police as well; Jeffrey Smith from the Metropolitan Police 
Department; Gunther Hashida from the Metropolitan Police Department; 
and Kyle DeFreytag from the Metropolitan Police Department.
  I am grateful for the brave officers also that testified in front of 
the January 6 committee: Officer Michael Fanone; Officer Harry Dunn; a 
New Yorker, Brooklynite, Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell; and Officer 
Daniel Hodges.
  It has been more than a year since Congress agreed to install a 
plaque to honor the officers who defended this very Capitol during the 
January 6 attack. I brought a poster of that plaque that has not yet 
been installed.
  We can talk all the fanfare we want about how great the police 
department is here in the metropolitan D.C. area and across the 
country, but we have failed for over a year to properly recognize the 
Capitol Police officers and the local police departments that protected 
our very own lives.
  We have failed to install the plaque, and that is why I bring this 
poster of it to show the American people that we want to honor not just 
all the police officers across the country but also the ones that 
defended this Capitol and protected us from an angry, violent mob whose 
intent was to kill Nancy Pelosi and whose clear intent was to 
assassinate Vice President Pence.
  They made no distinction on our political affiliation here in this 
Chamber. They weren't going to ask us for our pin or our voting card 
and whether we are a Republican or a Democrat. They will have made no 
distinction.
  Yet, the police officers were here, and we have failed to properly 
honor them.

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