[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16346-16347]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            POLICE TRAINING

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, in the wake of Trayvon Martin's tragic 
death, the Nation waits. Young people wait. I could give a long litany. 
But certainly Michael Brown has galvanized us from north to south, from 
east to west.
  I stand with the young men, among many others, of the St. Louis Rams 
and the young people that I have seen taking to the streets 
nonviolently, peacefully. Today I rise to thank them and to applaud 
them as Americans deserving of honor and respect. But they wait. So I 
believe that it is important that we work with those who are assigned 
and in uniform to protect and serve.
  As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, I have stood alongside 
law enforcement, but now it is important that we realize that the 
system is not cracked but broken. There must be a complete overhaul of 
the training of local police in the nooks and crannies of America. 
There must be a reform of the system which provides the funding to 
local jurisdictions simply by traffic stops and foot citations. That is 
what geared Officer Wilson in the wrong direction. And finally, Mr. 
Speaker, there must be training to protect officers but to know when to 
use deadly force.
  Deadly force was not warranted; it was not required in the life and 
the loss of Michael Brown. There must be solutions, Mr. Speaker, for 
those young people that are out in the streets protesting. We cannot 
have a lopsided justice system.

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