[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16540-16541]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             NO INDICTMENT IN ERIC GARNER'S CHOKE HOLD CASE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Brat). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Johnson) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight, ladies and 
gentlemen, with a heavy heart because today we had a secret grand jury 
finding in New York that resulted in no charges against the police 
officer who killed an unarmed man named Eric Garner, a man whom they 
accused of trying to sell some cigarettes. That man was approached by 
law enforcement on the streets of New York, and when approached, he 
said that he had not done anything wrong. He held his hands up in the 
hands up, don't shoot position, and they took him down while his hands 
were up and applied a choke hold, an illegal choke hold, and applied it 
until the man took his last breath.
  What did Eric Garner say 13 times before he died? What did he say 13 
times before he died? He said, ``I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I 
can't breathe.'' And he said that over and over again until he could 
not breathe. He took his last breath just like Michael Brown, accused 
of stealing some cigarettes--or cigars, excuse me--Michael Brown, 
accused of stealing some cigars, Eric Garner, accused of selling some 
cigarettes. I don't know when possession and/or sale of tobacco merited 
a death penalty in this country, but both of them, both of those cases 
involved tobacco products. Both of them involved men--Black men--with 
their hands up in the ``don't shoot'' position. Both of them were 
killed. Both cases were handled in a secret grand jury process. We 
don't know the names of the grand jurors, we don't know what went on in 
that grand jury room, although we do have the transcript in the Michael 
Brown case, and it shows that a lot of injustice was done in that grand 
jury room which resulted in an unjust no bill against the police 
officer involved in that case.
  We don't know what happened in the New York case, but we got a 
result, a no bill against that police officer who was caught on tape 
just like in the Rodney King case, all caught on tape, Eric Garner 
caught on tape, the killing, but still no justice done. Cameras are not 
the sole answer, it appears. It runs deeper than a camera.
  These are dark days, ladies and gentlemen, that we are living in 
today. The first African American President is treated like no other 
President has ever been treated before. Is this a symptom of the Obama 
backlash that is occurring in this country? Is there any connection 
between what we see happening in the streets of Ferguson and on the 
streets of New York, with what is going on with the dehumanization of 
the leader of the free world?
  First they said he was not a resident, not a citizen of this country. 
Then they said he was a Communist, a socialist. They accused him of 
being weak and indecisive as a President and not really having the 
intellectual capacity to be the President. Now they are saying he was a 
Muslim. Now they are saying that he is an emperor, a king, disregarding 
the Constitution. Where are we in America when it comes to Black males 
and how we treat them and how they end up faring in life?
  Is it our fault? Yes, we do have responsibility. We can always do 
better. But don't put your foot on my neck and tell me that it is my 
fault that your foot is on my neck. People are tired of seeing what is 
happening over and over again. A young, 12-year-old Black male with a 
BB gun at a park on the streets and a police car rolls up, a police 
officer gets out and immediately shoots the young man and kills him. 
Will that go to another secret grand jury process and have the same 
result as what we saw with Michael Brown and Eric Garner? It is 
happening throughout the streets of the Nation.
  I tell you, I have been gratified by the protesters. I have seen 
protesters out there. It has been Black and White protesters out there 
demonstrating peacefully being met with a militarized response. And I 
say that to say this, that I am going to paraphrase something that you 
will probably be familiar with:

       They first came for the gypsy, and I wasn't a gypsy, and I 
     didn't say anything. Then they came for the Jews, and I was 
     not a Jew, and so I didn't say anything. Then they came for 
     the women, and I wasn't a woman, and I didn't say anything. 
     Then they came for me, and there was nobody left to say 
     anything.

  Is that where we are headed in this country, ladies and gentlemen? 
Because there are all kinds of people out peacefully protesting, and 
that is what I advocate for, peaceful protests. Violence is not the 
way. Violence just produces more pain and agony. Violence is not the 
way. Nonviolence is the way that we must confront this because really, 
when you move past the fact that Black males are at the bottom of the 
totem pole, and we are the ones who bear the brunt, these who come to 
aid us are in the line of fire also.

                              {time}  1945

  What happens to one of us happens to all of us. If not you now, then 
what happens tomorrow when you come to my assistance? So we all are our 
brother's keeper.
  Right now, we are operating under an economic philosophy in this 
country that only the strong survive. If you are weak, it is your 
fault, and I don't owe you anything. Don't ask me for nothing. You get 
yours. I got mine; you get yours. Don't worry about me. Don't ask me 
for nothing.
  That is the economic attitude that we have that we are trying to 
preserve

[[Page 16541]]

and protect in this hallowed body here. It is called laissez-faire 
capitalism, and it is supported by the U.S. Supreme Court that has 
contorted itself in such ways so as to rule in ways that enable a 
corporation to become a person.
  When we have a corporation having a right to free speech and having 
unlimited funds and unlimited duration and we have a corporation that 
has a right to religious freedom, so that it can dictate to its 
employees their religious beliefs--it doesn't even make sense for a 
corporation to have a religious belief, but that is what our Supreme 
Court has found--and every other way that it can aid corporations to 
become richer.
  The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, and I don't owe you a 
thing--you are on your own. That is what they want us to believe, but 
it is time for people--for us to come together. It is all about 
economics.
  They put Blacks against Whites, poor Whites and poor Blacks against 
each other, and then they are going to the bank in the Brink's truck, 
and we are sitting, pointing fingers at ourselves, when we are all in 
the same boat together, the 99 percent--or the 47 percent, as one of 
our Presidential candidates most famously talked about in the last 
election. I am proudly one of those 47 percent, and I represent the 47 
percent that is really the 99 percent.
  So this extrajudicial killing of Black men has to end. If not, then 
what is going to happen to you tomorrow?
  With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

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