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POLICING IN AMERICA
Mr. SCOTT of South Carolina. Mr. President, yesterday on ABC's ``This Week,'' Senator Durbin asked Senator Booker and me to come back to the table and start talking about policing in America.
I never left the table, but it was Senator Durbin who filibustered my JUSTICE Act. It was Senator Durbin who called the effort to make deescalation training more available a ``token'' piece of legislation. It was indeed the Senator from Illinois who said that aspects of my JUSTICE Act which talked about the importance of the duty to intervene was a ``token'' piece of legislation.
In that legislation we had more resources for more training because we want only the best wearing the badge in every location, in every municipality, in every county, and in every State in this great Nation. But politics too often gets in the way in doing what every American knows is common sense, and here we find ourselves, again, having this same conversation with no action having happened so far.
I don't speak on this floor very often, but this is my 10th speech on policing in America in 8 years--the 10th time I have asked for something that will make our officers better and safer and make our communities better and safer. It is another time I have asked for more resources for recruitment so that we can have only the best wearing the badge, but this legislative body--the greatest deliberative body in the world--
didn't act.
It was in 2015, shortly after the shooting of Walter Scott, who was shot in the back in my hometown of Charleston, SC, that I came to this floor to ask for more resources for body-worn cameras so that we capture what happens during those vital times, and not a single Democrat cosponsored that legislation.
I came back a year later, in 2016, and gave three speeches on the importance of policing in America.
In 2020, on June 17, I introduced the JUSTICE Act with more requests for what I believe is common sense. It was 70 percent of what the House Democrats were asking for. We, on our side of the aisle, said: This makes sense. Why don't we find common ground in that 70 percent, make it into a piece of legislation and show the American people that, yes, their elected officials can, at times, act with common sense--because my assumption was that common ground leads to common sense.
Imagine my disappointment when the duty to intervene, deescalation training, more resources, more reporting so that we have eyes around the country was filibustered in this Chamber with not enough votes to even extend the conversation on the important issue of policing in America.
I came back just a week later, on June 24, standing on this floor asking our body to take seriously our responsibility on the important topic of policing in America. What I said that day on June 24, 2020, was that ``there is trouble coming.'' I referred to the Good Book, the Bible, and reflected on Ezekiel 33:6 that says that when you see trouble coming and you say nothing, you do nothing, the blood that comes is on your hands. But if you shout from the mountaintops, if you warn the people that trouble is coming, it is not on your hands.
Mr. President, our Nation is reeling. People--Republicans, Democrats, Independents, nonaffiliates, Black folks, White folks, rich folks, poor folks, Southerners, Northerners, the west coast and the east coast--are sick and tired of politics as usual.
We, as a nation, deserve better. We should be able to build a coalition around the common ground of, yes, we need more training on deescalation; yes, we need more resources and training on the duty to intervene; yes, we need more grants; and yes, we need the best wearing the badge.
We should have simple legislation that we can agree upon that has been agreed upon in the past, but too often too many are too concerned with who gets the credit.
I know that when a conservative Republican starts talking about policing in America, some people seem to just turn the channel. That is wrong.
When I came to the floor and talked about my many unnecessary incidents with the police; when I came to the floor and talked about the man, Walter Scott, shot in my city; when I came to this floor on June 17 and talked about the massacre at Mother Emanuel Church in my hometown--I take the issue of policing in America seriously. I want our body to see it not as an issue of Republicans versus Democrats but as good people standing in the gap, elected to do a job that we all ran to do. Let's do our jobs.
We can make a difference in this Nation. Had the duty to intervene been law of the land on the Federal level, it could have made a difference in Memphis, TN. In Wisconsin, more deescalation training could make a difference.
I hope that when the dust settles and the issue is no longer on the front pages of our newspapers, no longer streaming across our TVs and our iPads and our computers, that we do something that says to the American people: We see your pain. We are willing to put our partisan labels and shirts and uniforms on the side so that we can do what needs to be done. That is what the people deserve.
I yield the floor.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 169, No. 19
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