[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6618]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



          JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OVERPOWERS IN ELIAN GONZALEZ SAGA

  (Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, most people apparently felt Elian Gonzalez 
should have been returned to his father. However, regardless of what 
anyone felt about custody, the actions of the Justice Department were 
ridiculously excessive in busting into that home in Florida in the 
early morning hours several days ago.
  To send in officers in full riot gear, brandishing submachine guns 
was something a Federal police state would do. It was something that we 
would have expected in some Communist dictatorship, but not here.
  The picture of that officer pointing a gun at Elian and that 
fisherman is something that should have shocked and saddened everyone. 
Taking the law into its own hands just after it had been severely 
criticized by a U.S. Court of Appeals, not waiting for the next 
scheduled court hearing just a few days away, the Justice Department 
has shown once again that it has grown far too arrogant, far too 
abusive, far too big and really out of control.
  Mr. Speaker, if we do not drastically decrease the size, power, and 
especially the funding of the Justice Department in the years ahead, 
the freedom of all Americans will be in jeopardy.

                          ____________________