Brooks Defends Law Enforcement from Obama Administration's "War on Police"
Washington, D.C. – Standing before the U.S. House this morning, Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-05) spoke out against the Obama Administration’s false and inflammatory anti-police rhetoric, and expressed his support for America’s brave police officers.
Congressman Brooks stated, “Time after time, after police shootings of African Americans, the Obama Administration’s knee jerk, racially divisive strategy has been to paint a disturbingly false image of racial bias in police shootings that conflicts with a recent 2016 Harvard University study that found police are 24% less likely to fire upon African Americans than Caucasian Americans.”
The Obama Administration’s relationship with America’s law enforcement has deteriorated so badly that William Johnson, the executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, accuses Barack Obama of engaging in a “war on police”.
Brooks continued, “The solution, Mr. Speaker, is generating more respect for law and order and those who enforce it. That solution is absent in Obama Administration pronouncements.”
Brooks concluded, “Mr. Speaker, I want the public to know that I stand with the rule of law. I stand with America’s brave police officers who protect the rights and lives of all Americans. And I here and now publicly thank America’s law enforcement officers for risking their lives to protect law-abiding Americans from crime and anarchy.”
TEXT OF SPEECH:
Mr. Speaker:
Never has an American President been so willing to shoot first and ask questions later when a police officer uses deadly force in self-defense or to protect innocent lives. Never in American history has a President’s legacy been a consistent disregard for the rule of law.
Time after time, after police shootings of African Americans, the Obama Administration’s knee jerk, racially divisive strategy has been to paint a disturbingly false image of racial bias in police shootings[i] that conflicts with a recent 2016 Harvard University study[ii] that found police are 24% less likely, less likely, to fire upon African Americans than Caucasian Americans.[iii]
For emphasis, let me repeat that. A 2016 Harvard University study by African American Professor Roland Fryer found that police fire upon African Americans 24% less often than police fire upon Caucasian Americans.
On July 7th, well before the facts of two police shootings of African Americans were known, President Obama again stoked racial prejudice flames by claiming that [quote] “black folks are more vulnerable to these kinds of incidents.”[iv] [end quote] President Obama even defended subsequent, sometimes violent protests as rather benign [quote] “expressions of outrage.”[v] [end quote]
Shortly after the Obama Administration attacked the motives of America’s law enforcement officers and, perhaps, helped inspire even more violence against police, a Dallas sniper gunned down five police officers and injured many others during a Black Lives Matter protest.[vi] The shooter justified his murders by stating that he was upset by police shootings, referenced Black Lives Matter, and stated that he wanted to kill white people, especially white police officers.[vii]
Three days later, after these horrific murders of police officers, President Obama reiterated his politically-motivated, racial division narrative by blaming the attacks, in part, on a racial prejudice problem that police must fix because [quote] “that is what’s going to ultimately help make the job of being a cop a lot safer.”[viii] [end quote]
Showing great hutzpah, at the Dallas memorial ceremony for the slain officers, Obama again publicly blamed police racial bias as a contributing cause of police assassinations.[ix]
Mr. Speaker, when tearful Americans seek solace and unification, the Obama Administration dishes out racism and anti-police profiling that helps inspire even more violence against police.
The result of the Obama Administration’s politics of racial division and hatred?
So far this year, as of September 2nd, firearms-related deaths of American law enforcement officers are up 56%![x]
The Obama Administration’s relationship with police has deteriorated so badly that William Johnson, the executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, accuses Barack Obama of engaging in a [quote] “war on police” [end quote] adding that the Obama Administration’s [quote]: “continued appeasements at the federal level with the Department of Justice, their appeasement of violent criminals, their refusal to condemn movements like Black Lives Matter, actively calling for the death of police officers, that type of thing, all the while blaming police for the problems in this country, has led directly to the climate that has made Dallas possible.”[xi] [end quote]
Mr. Speaker, no one condones illegal shootings by police. Police who illegally use excessive force should be, and are, prosecuted criminally and civilly to the fullest extent of the law.
But the Obama Administration repeatedly pours gasoline on an open fire, rushing to anti-police judgment before the facts are known, and justice had, thereby helping to incite murders and assassinations of American police who dedicate their lives to our protection.
The solution, Mr. Speaker, is generating more respect for law and order and those who enforce it. That solution is absent in Obama Administration pronouncements.
Mr. Speaker, I want the public to know that I stand with the rule of law. I stand with America’s brave police officers who protect the rights and lives of all Americans. And I here and now publicly thank America’s law enforcement officers for risking their lives to protect law-abiding Americans from crime and anarchy.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back.
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[i] “Regardless of the outcome of such investigations, what's clear is that these fatal shootings are not isolated incidents. They are symptomatic of the broader challenges within our criminal justice system, the racial disparities that appear across the system year after year, and the resulting lack of trust that exists between law enforcement and too many of the communities they serve.” Whitehouse.gov, Statement posted on Facebook, July 7, 2016, https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/07/07/president-obama-fatal-shootings-alton-sterling-and-philando-castile.
[ii] Roland G. Fryer, Jr., Henry Lee Professor of Economics, Harvard University, “An Empirical Analysis of Racial Differences in Police Use of Force,” http://scholar.harvard.edu/fryer/publications/empirical-analysis-racial-differences-police-use-force.
[iii] “In stark contrast to non-lethal uses of force, we find no racial differences in officer-involved shootings on either the extensive or intensive margins. Using data from Houston, Texas – where we have both officer-involved shootings and a randomly chosen set of potential interactions with police where lethal force may have been justified – we find, in the raw data, that blacks are 23.8 percent less likely to be shot at by police relative to whites. Hispanics are 8.5 percent less likely.” Id. at 5.
[iv] Whitehouse.gov, July 7, 2016, “Statement by the President,” https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/07/07/statement-president.
[v]Whitehouse.gov, July 7, 2016, “Statement by the President,” https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/07/07/statement-president.
[vi] Time, July 8, 2016, “What to Know about the Shooting of Police Officers at a Protest in Dallas,” http://time.com/4397785/dallas-shooting-police-protest-snipers.
[vii] Id.
[viii] “And if police organizations and departments acknowledge that there’s a problem and there’s an issue, then that, too, is going to contribute to real solutions. And, as I said yesterday, that is what’s going to ultimately help make the job of being a cop a lot safer. It is in the interest of police officers that their communities trust them and that the kind of rancor and suspicion that exists right now is alleviated.” Whitehouse.gov, July 10, 2016, “Remarks by President Obama and Prime Minister Rajoy of Spain After Bilateral Meeting,” https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/07/10/remarks-president-obama-and-prime-minister-rajoy-spain-after-bilateral.
[ix] Whitehouse.gov, July 12, 2016, “Remarks by the President at Memorial Service for Fallen Dallas Police Officers,” https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/07/12/remarks-president-memorial-service-fallen-dallas-police-officers. Obama stated, in part, that “bias remains” and “that includes our police departments.”
[x] National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, “Preliminary 2016 Law Enforcement Officer Fatalities, January 1 through September 2, 2016 vs. January 1 through September 2, 2015,” http://www.nleomf.org/facts/officer-fatalities-data/.
[xi] Politico, Bianca Padro Ocasio, July 8, 2016, “Police group director: Obama caused a 'war on cops,'” http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/obama-war-on-cops-police-advocacy-group-225291.