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Fortunately, there were complaints made by the family, and they got through to a reporter and he got to a hospital and he survived. And the whole case broke as an exposure of what had gone on in that precinct. Most of the police in that precinct would not tell the truth. The blue wall

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   Fortunately, the Federal Government stepped into the situation and, from the beginning, showed a great interest and prosecuted the policeman for violating the civil rights of Abner Louima. Abner Louima is not dead, fortunately. He is probably injured for life. He will never function normally again. But there was a trial and, after almost a year of denying that any crime had been committed, the blue wall of silence was at work concocting stories about Abner Louima having engaged in homosexual activity and that is how his guts were erupted or torn inside him. All kinds of concocted ridiculous stories were manufactured, until finally in the Federal trial, in Brooklyn, the perpetrator confessed that he had done it, and was found guilty, of course, by his confession.

[Time: 22:00]

   However, even after confessing, he wanted the world to believe he did it all by himself and nobody else saw it, wanted to protect his colleagues, and came back to court to testify in a second trial, a conspiracy trial.

   The conspiracy trial related to Abner Louima was probably more important than the trial which convicted the man who perpetrated the heinous act against Abner Louima. Because the conspiracy trial goes to the heart of the problem.

   The heart of the problem is the fact that the colleagues of the perpetrators, the colleagues of the extremists, of the fanatics, of the racists cover up for them. They pretend they saw nothing, they heard nothing, the system, in effect, to cover up for the crime committed against Abner Louima. His relatives went to the police station the next day, and they were threatened and told to get away from there or they would be arrested.

   All kinds of horrible things happened before this case began to rise and surface in such a way that the police department had to admit that a great crime had been committed and they had to go to work to do something about it.

   But when the Federal Government entered the case early and began to question the police officers, the blue wall of silence went into effect. So they took a very important step in trying four of those officers for conspiracy to cover up. Because that is the heart of the problem. The system has to be changed. The system has to be attacked.

   The Federal Government at this point has also completed a study of the pattern of activity in New York City with respect to the stop-and-frisk and the way they police minority neighborhoods.

   What does this have to do with the budget? Let me go back for a moment and say that all those people out there who were upset about the Amadou Diallo verdict, and there were many people, there was a spontaneous set of demonstrations. High school kids, without any tutelage or planning, left their schools and demonstrated in the streets. College kids demonstrated, white and black. There was no group that did not show their outrage.

   Today, on the steps of New York Police Plaza, a press conference took place of businessmen, businessmen and labor leaders, rabbis, civil liberties leaders, urban league, a press conference took place where they all together condemned the latest activities of the mayor with respect to exposing the criminal record of Dorismond as a 13-year-old child and taking a position in defense of the killing of Patrick Dorismond before the facts were examined thoroughly.

   Our constituents in New York are very upset, outraged, demanding action from their leaders. Our constituents are demanding action against these gross misjustices.

   Fortunately, none of these spontaneous responses have been violent. We keep telling people it does not pay to go out in the streets and burn anything down or conduct riots. As leaders, we have been successful in making people understand that negative and unproductive set of conduct that should not be followed. However, they turn to us and say, What are you going to do? What about it?

   Well, I want to say it does relate to the budget here. Because in our budget, item number 7 is the juvenile justice system. We want more money put into the Federal criminal justice system, juvenile justice , adult justice , law enforcement in general. We want more money put in.

   We also have a bill that will require more funds in the Justice Department. That bill was put in by the

   gentleman from Michigan (Mr. CONYERS) 2 weeks ago. And I would like to let everybody know out there, the constituents, that we are not standing still, we are taking certain kinds of actions. This bill, the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act, is going beyond what we have done already.

   We have gone to the Justice Department. We have gone to the deputy of Janet Reno. We made our appeals there. We have gone through those motions on these particular cases, especially Amadou Diallo. And we have now gone to the Justice Department about Patrick Dorismond. In Brooklyn, the U.S. Attorney in that district, the Eastern District, now has had a discussion on that. So we are taking action at the level that we think we can take the most relevant actions.

   We have accreditation of the bill that the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. CONYERS) has introduced, the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act, which will require additional funding by the Justice Department if they carry out these points.

   I will just quickly summarize what the bill says. The bill calls for the accreditation of local law enforcement agencies not to operate so loosely. They should have a set of procedures and standards, a training regiment which does not allow for inexperienced people to be set loose on the street with guns in their hands but make certain that they have had thorough training not only in the use of force but also an understanding of the community that they are patrolling.

   This bill authorizes the Department of Justice to work cooperatively with independent accreditation law enforcement and community-based organizations to further develop and refine these accreditation standards.

   Second point: Law enforcement agency development programs. The bill authorizes the attorney general to make grants to local States and governments to develop programs, such as civilian review boards, early warning and detection programs, which have proven effective in many jurisdictions, and many kinds of activities which would help develop a greater rapport between police and the community.

   Administrative due process procedures. The bill requires that the attorney general study the prevalence and impact of any law, rule, or procedure which interferes with prompt and thorough investigations of abuse.

   In New York City they have the 48-hour rule. The police department, the Police Benevolent Association, their union negotiated an agreement where no policeman who is involved in an excessive use of force case can be interrogated before 48 hours. Forty-eight hours must pass before they have the right to interrogate a policeman who is involved in some incident related to excessive use of force or the firing of a gun even if it resulted in the killing of an individual.

   Item four in the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act sponsored by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. CONYERS). It enhances the funding of the Civil Rights Division in the Civil Rights Department. It authorizes appropriations for expenses for ongoing investigations of pattern and practice of abusive investigation by the Justice Department.

   Item five in the pattern and practice investigations: It enhances the authority to bring private cause of actions limited only to declaratory and injunctive relief when there is a pattern and practice of discrimination.

   Item six: Deprivation of rights under color of law. The bill amends section 242 of Title 18 of the Code to expressively define ``use of force'' and ``nonconsentual sexual conduct'' as deprivations of rights under color of law.

   Item 7: The study of deaths in custody, referring back to the Illinois case. The bill amends the Code to require assurances that States will follow guidelines established by the attorney general for reporting deaths in custody.

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   National Task Force on Law Enforcement Oversight. The bill requires the Department of Justice to establish a task force to coordinate the investigation, prosecution, and enforcement efforts of Federal, State, and local governments in cases related to law enforcement misconduct.

   Immigration Enforcement Review Commission. The bill creates a commission to investigate civil rights complaints against the INS and Customs Services with authority to make policy and disciplinary recommendations.

   It is very interesting that, in New York, several of the cases that have taken place have related to immigrants. Amadou Diallo was an immigrant from Africa, the country of Guinea. Patrick Dorismond is a Haitian American. Abner Louima is a Haitian American.

   I know this is only a coincidence because I have lived in New York for 42 years and there is a long list of victims of excessive force, negligent homicide, that were not necessarily immigrants.

   Eleanor Bumpers was a grandmother who was shot down in her living room. Claude Reece was a 13-year-old who lived in a housing project in my district. Clifford Glover was 11 years old and was shot in the back. Randolph Evans was shot point-blank by a policeman who used a defense in court called psychomotor epilepsy. I have never heard that term before; and since that case, that trial, I have never heard it since. Well, the jury found the policeman not guilty because he had had a seizure of psychomotor epilepsy and he could not stop his hand from raising the gun and pointing to young Randolph Evans's head. He walked off scot-free.

   So there have been a long list of deaths, of police killings and police brutality which did not deal with immigrants. But it just happens that recently the focus has been, by accident I think, on immigrants. So an Immigrant Enforcement Review Commission is very much in order.

   Item 10: Federal Data Collection on Racial Profiling. The bill requires the Justice , Treasury and Interior Departments to collect data concerned with personal characteristics of individuals targeted for investigation, etcetera.

   The bill establishes civil and criminal penalties for retaliation against law enforcement officers who in God's faith disclose, initiate, or advocate on behalf of a civilian complainant in actions alleging police misconduct and creates private cause of action for retaliation.

   These are 11 of the points that are emphasized in the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act. Many of them will require additional funding. My colleague the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. JACKSON-LEE) has added to that some other provisions that will require additional funding in the budget. She wants a budget increase to deal with the Weed & Seed program. She wants to address juvenile delinquency prevention with certain projects, a program to reintegrate great young offenders, and a program to reduce youth gun violence.

   So in our seventh category, juvenile justice and law enforcement, in our budget, we are addressing some of the issues that are of great concern to my constituents back in New York. CBC, the Congressional Black Caucus, wants to support these issues in every way. Tomorrow we will deal with a budget which does that.

   In addition to that, I think it is important to note that we are proposing and, in fact, I proposed at a meeting of the Brooklyn African American Clergy and Elected Officials, consisting of 96 members, on March 3, 2000, I proposed the following in reaction to my constituents and all those who are outraged and want some leadership, I proposed we have a declaration against surrender to this kind of activity.

   We will not surrender to police abuse and a policeman state mentality. We will not surrender to a mayor and a commissioner who insist on protecting the extremists and the fanatics who constitute only a small part of the police department.

   This declaration of surrender reads as follows: ``We, the undersigned leaders of the caring majority, pledge to unite in solidarity against continuing oppression by the extremist law enforcement establishment and the collaborating criminal justice system. With unrelenting fervor, we pledge to provide continuous leadership for the following actions and activities:

   (1) negotiations to achieve the 10 demands for police and criminal justice reform set forth on March 27, 1999, almost a year ago.

   A coalition of leaders from all parts of the city met at Local 1199 in the heart of the city, and we drew up a 10-point plan on misconduct and brutality. These 10 points cover the need for civilian review board which has real teeth. It covers the call for a special prosecutor to be appointed in cases involving police brutality or police homicide. It calls for a residency law for New York City.

   Most of the country requires policemen to live in the city or the county. Most of the counties in New York State require policemen to live in the city or county. But not in New York City. The legislature exempts New York City from that requirement despite the fact that the city council and the people of New York want a residency law to guarantee that they get police that have a greater comprehension of the people that they are serving and the cultures that make up New York City.

[Time: 22:15]

   On and on it goes. There are 10 demands here drawn up March 27, 1999. The problem with these demands is that for the 40 years that I have been in New York, most of these demands have been made repeatedly over and over again every time there has been some excessive use of force or misconduct among the police. The time that I have been in New York, for 40 years, there have been three commissions to investigate corruption and excessive use of force. They all come up with the same recommendation. Nothing gets done. For that reason, we are insisting that we negotiate again. We like to go to our constituents and say we are reasonable people, we are leaders who do not under any circumstances want our constituents to resort to violence. We want to proceed in a nonviolent way, in a reasonable way to try to get these so-called intractable problems that seem not to be solvable, to get something done. So we want to negotiate these 10 demands. We want to ask the mayor to negotiate again, but beyond the mayor we want the fathers of the city, we have a phrase in New York called the permanent government of the city. In a lot of the cities and towns across the country, there is a permanent government, the business people, the civic leaders, a group of people who really behind the scenes, if you do not have their approval, if elected officials do not have their approval, they cannot survive, they cannot exist. There is a combination of financial contributions as well as the press being on your side, indignation of people in high places who have the bully pulpit. They can govern in certain ways. We think that they are guilty in New York City of not weighing in and doing more over the years to rein in the excessive police abuse that continues to erupt again and again in New York City. So we want to negotiate with them as well as with the mayor and the governor. That is point one in this Declaration Against Surrender.

   We want to, point two, take the necessary actions to achieve intervention in the Diallo case by the Justice Department and the prosecution of the four police defendants for the violation of the civil rights of Amadou Diallo. Four policemen have already been found innocent of anything, including reckless endangerment or negligent homicide, nothing, totally innocent, just as the people who beat up Rodney King in California were found innocent. Despite the fact that you had a videotape of them surrounding him and beating him, they still found the perpetrators innocent. The Federal Government had to go in and try those same people on a charge of violation of civil rights of Rodney King. We have asked and we are pressing hard to get the Justice Department to try the people who killed Amadou Diallo on the basis of the violation of the civil rights of Amadou Diallo, a victim of police profiling. Nowhere in the history of New York City have you had a person standing on his front porch shot down by the police. Only racial profiling gone mad and seeing any black as a threat could have conjured up an image of Amadou Diallo as being a danger to society or to the four policemen who

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   Our third point here is an appeal to the United Nations to secure an objective review of the violations of minority human rights in the United States as evidenced by the following. Violations of minority rights in the United States are out of control. Too many people in high places are not excited about the fact that they are out of control. Why? Because, one, there is a national pattern, a national pattern of systemic police brutality with recurring unjustified homicides. Two, death penalty laws which result in a disproportionate number of minorities executed, a disproportionate number of minorities executed and a high probability of innocent victims on death row. I gave you the case of Illinois where the death row inmates who were innocent were fortunate enough to have a local university project conduct an exercise using the latest detective techniques including DNA, and they found 12 of 25 of the people on death row to be innocent. The next point, widespread officially sanctioned racial profiling. The next point, exposures of massive long-term corruption and illegal arrests in police departments. The next point of great racial disparity in sentencing. Great racial disparity. We have several studies which show that a black person and a white person accused of the same crime going through the same similar investigative procedure standing before a judge, the racial minority will get a tougher sentence, a higher sentence. Disparity in sentencing. Finally, the imprisonment of 2 million persons, most of whom are poor and members of minority groups. In the United States there are now about 2 million people in prison. Prisons have become a major industry. You can invest in prisons. If you invest in prisons, they do not pay off unless you have inmates. You are paid according to the number of inmates. There is something grossly unjust about this kind of system. There is something grossly unjust about so many people in prison. The highest number now of any of the industrialized nations are imprisoned in the United States of America. Almost half of them are imprisoned for nonviolent offenses related to drugs. There is something wrong with the system. We complain on the floor of this House, we have many bills which have made matters worse sponsored by the Republican majority. We complain. Nothing happens. An appeal to the United Nations may be where we have to go in order to get some attention focused on these gross abuses.

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