The only way forward is to treat each other with the respect and empathy the presiding officer without objection. Mr. Durbin thank you. Mr. President , this past weekend, i went back to illinois and visited with two different groups, one on friday, another on saturday. They were Young African americans on the southside of chicago and in my hometown of springfield. I wanted to sit down with these young people, some just barely high school students, who had been engaged in the protests and demonstration in their hometowns and asked them what happened it was about, what it meant to them. I wanted to hear it first hand. They talked about the killing of george floyd in minneapolis and how it changed the conversation about justice in america, and it moved them to stand up and speak up. Im proud to say that those that i met with have engaged in Peaceful Demonstrations quint with american consistent with American Values and our constitution. Im proud of them because there were no distractions. They were focused on black lives matter an true justice and true justice in america. When we met, i asked questions of some of them. I wanted to know a little bit more about them and their lives and what brought them to this moment. I asked each of them about the conversation, you know, that conversation when young people are called in by their parents and warned about the perils of challenges of being black in america. One young woman remembered her mother cautioning her to always ask for a receipt with every purchase to prove, if ever challenged, that the item had not been shoplifted. Many talked about hair styles and clothing that they learned to be dangerous by some white americans many they were warned about the danger of any contact with police and how their tone of voice and every move had to be carefully considered. Every one of them every one of them remember the first time they were called the n word. That graphic video of the last moments of George Floyds life when he was pleading, i cant breathe, and the cold stair of stare of the policeman with his knee on George Floyds neck, ignoring the pleas for mercy, those images touched the conscience of america and the world and these young people were touched by it. They know and we all know sadly that what happened to george floyd was not an exception. Since 2015 the Washington Post has been following the number of people shot and killed by poli police. Through 2019 the total number has hovered near 1,000 annually. 94 of the victims were armed. The post reports and i quote, the number of black and unarmed people fatally shot by police has declined since 2015 but whether armed or not, black people are shot and killed at a disproportionately higher rate than white people. End of quote. They note in their newspaper this morning the death rate by race in unarmed shootings was 7. 3 for whites, 10. 7 for hispanics, and 30. 3 for blacks. The anger and pain that we have seen on the streets in recent days is a reflection of generations of trauma. People are fed up with racism that has led to this injustice and many of these young people leading this protest are determined not to live in its shadow any longer. There are hundreds of thousands of Police Officers in our nation. Most will never use their firearms. Many who do must make splitsecond lifeordeath decisions. I know many of them personally. I believe the ones i know are professional and humane. But if were honest, we know that within their ranks of Police Officers who do not have the training or temperament to be entrusted with the authority and power they have been given. We need an honest conversation with police chiefs, Law Enforcement leaders, use of on use of force, training, and accountability for unjust actions. Prosecutors and judges need to join us in the pursuit of real justice and legislators like myself need to undo the damage of a criminal Justice System fraught with racial disparity. The Obama Task Force on 21st Century Policing released a report in 2015 to strengthen Community Policing and restore trust between Law Enforcement and the communities they serve. The Trump Administration shelved this effort in 2017. It is time to take it off the shelf. This week i joined senators booker and harris in cosponsoring the justice in policing act of 2020, a comprehensive approach to bring accountability to policing, change methods and practices, and build trust. It draws the line on odious Police Practices and sets goals and standards for recruitment, training and retraining. But even that is not enough. Justice in america requires more than improving Law Enforcement. We cannot put racism behind us until we invest in opportunities for quality education, medical care that meets the highest standards, jobs with livable wages, and opportunities, and safe, affordable housing. The young people i met with want an america that is more just. Let them lead us into a future where we can all breathe more easily. I can recall hearings on race in america when i was chairman of a subcommittee on the constitution and civil rights in december of 2014. The hearing was held just a month after the death of tamir rice, a 12yearold boy shot and killed by a Police Officer in cleveland while he played with a toy gun. I said then and sadly i must repeat today when unarmed African American men and boys are killed in our streets, there is much work to be done to find justice in america. This followed a hearing id held the Previous Year where we heard heartbreaking testimony from sabrina fulton, the number of Trayvon Martin and lucy mcbath, the mother of jordan davis. Lucy has been elected to the u. S. House of representatives from florida since. Both of these innocent young black men were gunned down by violent white vij antes vigilantes. Now we again grieve the lives of two black men and a black woman, lives cut far too short in incidents of inexplicable, inexcusable violence, Ahmaud Arbery out for a jog. Breonna taylor at home in her bedroom. And george floyd on a curbside in minneapolis. Once again those gutwrenching words i cant breathe brings tears to our eyes. How many more names of black men, women, and children will we cry out in protest before things change . We need to have an honest american conversation with Law Enforcement officers about training, inherent bias, use of force, and consequences for wrongdoing. We need to prohibit Police Misconduct that is discriminatory and deadly. We must recruit and train the next generation of Law Enforcement to protect and serve everyone in america. And we need to invest in social services instead of expecting Law Enforcement to intervene in crisis situations that theyre not equipped to deal with. This will require us senator, other legislators to continue to undo the damage of a criminal Justice System that is unfair in many respects. Most importantly, it will require those of us with privilege and power to step back and listen to African Americans affected by pervasive, systemic racism. What can we do . Good place to start is president obamas task force. As i mentioned earlier, it was that administrations response to deal with Community Policing and trust in the community. It was shelved by the Trump Administration and i think it would be a good start, a bipartisan start for the Trump Administration to bring it down from the shelf and start a conversation. We have an Important Role to play right here in congress. Unfortunately since republicans took the Senate Majority in january 2015, the Senate Judiciary committee has rarely addressed issues of racism in our nation. The last hearing on policing in the Judiciary Committee was actually five years ago. November 2015 chaired by the junior senator from texas. It was entitled the war on police. How a federal government undermines state and local Law Enforcement. It was a thinlyveiled attack on the efforts of the Obama Administrations civil rights division. Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham has announced the senate that the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Police Misconduct next week. I was glad to hear t. I hope its hear it. I hope its not just one and done. We need multiple hearings long overdue. Its critical we also hear from attorney general william barr. We need to know whether the Justice Department will revive the efforts of the Obama Administration to address Police Misconduct and we need answers about what happened at Lafayette Square last week right outside the white house when the attorney general reportedly ordered federal Law Enforcement to clear peaceful demonstrators. They used rubber bullets and some form of gas. The attorney general insisted it wasnt tear gas but ive seen it and it looks like some sort of a gas spray designed to push the demonstrators away. Hearings arent enough. We need to do something the senate rarely does anymore, pass a law. How about that . We need legislation on this subject, not lamintaition. Our bill includes the legislation ive cor response cosponsored for many years prohibiting the scourge of racial profilling. In 2012 i held a hearing on this bill to end racial profiling. This was the only hearing that the senate has held on racial profiling in 20 years. Our bill would ban choke holds like the one that killed george floyd. It will ban no narc warrants. In 2014 Many Americans were shocked to see tanks rolling through the streets of ferguson, missouri. Shortly afterwards i held a hearing in the same subcommittee where we heard compelling testimony about the shocking reality that local Police Departments all over the country are armed to the teeth with billions of dollars of military surplus equipment. Our bill will limit the transfer of military grade equipment to state and local police so the weapons of war dont become commonplace on the streets of america. The justice and policing act also requires the use of dashboard cameras and body cameras for federal officers, state and local Law Enforcement. Our bill establishes a national Police Misconduct registry to prevent officers who have engaged in misconduct from simply moving to another Department Without accountability. It will ensure that individuals whose Constitutional Rights are violated by Police Officers can recover in court. After the civil war the Congress Passed the Civil Rights Act of 1871 to ensure that any person acting in an official capacity who deprives another of a constitutional legal right can be held liable in court. However, judges have strictly limited the use of this statute to recover damages for Police Misconduct by creating whats known as qualified immunity for Police Officers. The justice and policing act will end this. This is a doctrine created by judges and never approved by congress. I call on senator mcconnell to do more than just doing speeches on george floyd. I call him to bring the justice and policing act to the floor as soon as possible. Wouldnt it be amazing with all the protestation and all of the statements made by all of the people in the streets, by representatives of this administration from the department of justice who came before our committee today and each and every one standing up and saying theyre concerned about george floyd, if we in the United States actually considered a bill on the subject, actually considered passing a law on this matter . We owe it not just to the senate. We owe it to george floyd, to breonna taylor, to Ahmaud Arbery and all the black and brown lives that weve lost in these brutal acts of racial injustice. Madam president , i yield