chairman Adler members of committee ranking member Jordan thank you for
inviting me to participate in these very serious hearings today I want to begin
by stating that the prospect of defunding and/or dismantling police
forces across the country is one of the most unwise irresponsible proposals by
American politicians in our nation's history and makes absolutely no sense at
all at least to me I believe it is nothing short of the politicizing of
current social events in the effort to garner votes during this election season
I also believe that it's a reactionary measure that can and will result in
short and long term damage to American society particularly in our inner-city
and urban communities now I recognize the fact that the elimination of
excessive force and physical retaliation by officers of the law against American
citizens is paramount today I recognize the fact that racial profiling and the
harsh treatment of minorities is a very real reality that must be eliminated
immediately I myself can testify of times in my life when I felt racially
profiled by police I can testify have times in my life when I was pulled over
for driving while black I can testify up giving my grandson who is now of driving
age the talk of how to properly behave if pulled over by police because because
he had the question of a very real fear of the possibility of death at the hands
of police in fact my very first interaction with police when I was 13
years old resulted in me being roughed up I could very easily have been George
Floyd George Flor could have very easily been me my brother's my friends or any
number of any other black men in America however I do not recommend throwing the
baby out with the bathwater by labeling all police officers as bad cops simply
because of the bad actions of a rogue segment of those whose
job is supposed to be to protect and to serve American citizens in fact in
certain inner-city communities across America increased funding for police and
increase police presence is actually necessary in order to enforce the law
and to guarantee the safety and the security of law-abiding members of those
communities as one who was formally in this street life years ago I might be a
pastor but I didn't come down from heaven
I came up out of hell with the rest of everybody else
I was formally in that street life I know very much about the criminal
element and I can state definitively that the criminal element in and of
society would enjoy nothing better than a reduction in police presence and
police and power it would allow those with criminal intentions and criminal
actions to flourish virtually unchallenged in the communities of
America the law-abiding members of society would be directly threatened by
the absence of police or the inability of police to respond to criminal
activities and in many cases would endeavor to take the law into their own
hands to ensure that their safety and
well-being as evidenced by the response of some who decided to defend themselves
and their property from vandalism in absence of police presence could
potentially give rise to acts of domestic terrorism mob rule gang rule
neighborhood intimidation oppression and vigilantism defunding of police
departments has already happened in a number of American cities and rather
than remedying problems has actually made conditions much worse the city of
Cleveland my hometown is a prime example of the results of police defunding in
2004 the city of Cleveland lead-off 281 five officers the entire police budget
was slashed by 31% to cover basic services the following units were either
disbanded or cut forever the district strike force units the Narcotics Unit
was completely cut SWAT was downsized the fugitive unit was disbanded the auto
theft unit was disbanded the Intelligent unit
was cut to bare-bones the mounted unit was cut 85% the aviation unit was down
completely for three years that's now only utilized during special events the
Harbor unit was disabled the boat sits rotting in a dry dock the scientific
investigation unit was cut 80% all the lab techs were let go all evidence
collection is now done by priority the dare problem the drug abuse resistance
education program was cut community policing was cut 45 percent cleveland
went through a decade-long downsizing which saw department the department
reduced from nineteen hundred officers to fifteen hundred officers on average
zone car coverage which directly affects citizens has been cut police presence in
any given district when any given shift has been cut in half one in two man
units have been cut in half response time is dramatically longer if
the police show up at all the murder rates have climbed the property crime is
at record levels aggravated robbery statistics are higher drug sales drug
use drug abuse is higher drug and alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents
are the highest they've ever been Cleveland has went from a relatively
safe city per capita to an unbelievably unsafe city calls for service have
increased even though the problem the population has dropped significantly
over the last 20 years once safe areas of the city are now
unsafe one wants nice neighborhoods in the city are now not nice homicides are
up 55% in Cleveland from this time last year and Cleveland now has a higher
murder rate per 100,000 residents than Chicago does I believe that Police
Department's are only as effective as politicians and their appointees allow
them to be consequently politicians and appointees are directly responsible for
the state of their Police Department's law-abiding citizens and I've spoken to
a great deal of them overwhelmingly think that deep funding or disbanding
Police Department's is a horrible idea community policing is a very viable
option to address the needs of inner-city communities having police in
the communities to actually get to know the residents is the best way to obtain
the results that we all want when I was growing up the residents and the
business owners knew the police officers that were assigned to our neighborhoods
and their presence was a deterrent to criminal activity
so in short deep funding of police departments in America has already
happened and it was proven to be an epic fail
we cannot allow their paradigm to continue if we want the neighborhoods of
America to be safe to live in the streets of America to be safe for
residents to walk on and the communities of America conducive for businesses to
thrive in so I recommend and I agree with the fact that police reform or
better yet police revision revisions should be enacted but it has to be one
that is sensitive to the stress tension pressure and paranoia that policing
produces the fact that on any given day any given call any given stop can result
in an officer's death can be very challenging mentally while also being
sensitive to the citizens of America who are supposed to be protected by the
police and not be enemies of the police whether in the suburbs or in the inner
cities whether we're black white red yellow or brown I really believe that
most police officers most cops began their careers most bad cops began their
careers as good cops but they allow the rigors of their job to affect their
perspectives and their social interaction with those they are supposed
to protect and they began perceiving those that they are supposed to protect
as those they themselves need to be protected from I'm in agreement I
endorsed police reform but it has to be sensitive to both sides of that issue
thank you for allowing me god bless you