OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Unanimous Consent Request--Amendment No. 2457

Floor Speech

Date: July 21, 2020
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Executive Branch Criminal Justice

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I want to thank from my heart our two colleagues from Oregon who are standing up and championing not just their hometowns, not just the constituents of their State, but they are speaking for every hometown and every citizen of our country from every party, from every corner of our great Nation.

Let me just say very simply, these pictures of heavily armed, unidentified individuals in camouflage fatigues driving unmarked vehicles, grabbing individuals and throwing them into their car, would be something we would associate with the worst nightmare of a two-bit dictatorship. Here we see it in the United States of America.

I spent almost my whole career in law enforcement before I came to this body, and I am embarrassed and ashamed that this kind of sadistic, cruel, hate-filled coup was done in the name of law enforcement. What we witnessed in Oregon was in no way law enforcement. It was a violation of the law and of individual rights, and it is coming to your hometown as well. The President has specifically named Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, and Oakland. It will come to Hartford and my hometown Stanford and other cities in Connecticut. Have no fear, if the President will go to these abusive extremes on the other coast of America, he will come to the east coast as well.

Let me just state the requirements of this amendment: identification of each officer, limiting Federal agents to their proper role in protecting Federal property, transparency and deployment of these officers, identification of them, and accountability are basic tenets of law enforcement.

We should not have to address this issue on the floor of the U.S. Senate, and we are doing it only because the President has broken the norms. He has disrespected the law. Every Senator in this body, regardless of party, should be standing up and speaking out in support of this amendment. I thank my colleague for speaking our truth to power.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward