Chair nadler the frequency of these killings, the absence of full accountability for those responsible sent a message to members of the Africanamerican Community that black lives do not matter. Let me state clearly for the record that black lives matter. Our criminal Justice System, including our Police Departments, cannot function without africanamericans knowing that their lives matter equally, that the system works to protect them just as it does every other citizen. We must also be able to put ourselves in the shoes of our Law Enforcement officers. We must be able to celebrate the services and sacrifices of our men and women in Law Enforcement who put their lives on the line ay in and day out. Serving up an inherently dangerous job. Take an advantage Law Enforcement officers and their families. It is alsoresponsible for the majority of incidents of misconduct. Todays hearing presents a unique opportunity for to us hear from some of the individuals and families affected by police misconduct. So i want to personally thank ms. Carr for speaking at this hearing on behalf of her son, and mr. Blake for sharing his personal story with us. Today presents an opportunity for us to explore Bipartisan Solutions to make policing a safer job by restoring the trust and good will between police and the communities they serve. We can reexam to see reforms passed by barack obama in 21st Century Policing and determine what further solutions are warranted. For example, we should examine whether the incentives created by the qualified immunity remain useful in todays environment. We should consider legislative proposals to end racial profiling and restore trust between Law Enforcement and the community. And we should explore ways to strengthen Data Collection on use of force and racial profiling so that Police Departments can measure the practices they manage. Most important, we can all agree that too many lives are put at risk and have been lost in Police Citizen encounters and that it is incumbent upon each of us to Work Together as fellow americans to solve this problem. I thank all the witnesses for appearing and look forward to their testimony. I now recognize the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, the gentleman from georgia, mr. Collins, for his opening statement. Mr. Collins thank you, mr. Chairman. I appreciate that. Before i get started i would like to add to the record a letter from the Detectives Association new york and the National Association of police organizations, a letter for the record. Chair nadler without objection. Mr. Collins i appreciate the chairmans opening. I think you covered a great deal of stuff. For me, and i have a lot of notes here, one of the things that to start out this it is very important that Excessive Force were used to be punish, should not be a thought about t. It should be punished and put before a proper due process procedure and acted upon quickly. It should not drug out. If its in a Minority Community or any other community, it needs to be looked at, processed, and done so in a fair way to all involved so that there is justice, there is possibility, so people do trust. But the one thing i do want to focus on, and the chairman did a good job because it is very fair that there are a lot of things that have happened in communities that raise a lot of concerns. Even on this committee have a job to look over how do we fix this . There are officers on this committee. I serve with and mrs. Demings is one of those who have done this, worn a uniform. I come from a different position. I want to emphasize. This is why we have this hearing today. Im going to take it from a perspective i dont think anybody wants to see justice go unserved. I think the interesting perspective here is my perspective there is no one that wants the bad actors out of Law Enforcement more than Law Enforcement itself. Im the son of a Georgia State trooper. I made the joke before that i thought fought the law and the law won every time. 62, 250 pounds, blue and gray uniform,. 350 on his belt. Daddy loved us, he was in georgia, he understood that. He would come home, im the little kid would watch dad go to work and when he come home at night. He would come in with his uniform torn, blood on his collar. How does that affect that kid . Thats my daddy. Thats the man to this day hes 80 years old. Hes a big teddy bear now, because of grandchildren. This is the man that i admire to this day. I am who i am because of him. When what would happen, my dad was a strong man and strong man. One of the interesting things that i always found was, its when something would go wrong with an officer, we had an officer in georgia who Georgia State trooper, i knew personally, who im tempted to call it a mistake, its not, he committed a crime. He had sexual encounter with someone in his custody and hes in jail. He was punished for it. You know whats even more amazing to me was my dads reaction to that. My dad came home he was upset. He was mad. I could tell it because the chairman talked about how this plays out in the police force. It played out at home. Because my dad didnt talk about it. My dad was mad as he could be about somebody tarnishing the badge and uniform that he wore. There is no one i believe, honestly in this country, who wants bad actors, who do bad things, out of the police force more than the police themselves. As someone who understands this and watched my father live it every day, when he was painted with that broad brush the chairman spoke off im glad we are not going to use, when he was painted because of others, then it affects everybody. In a highrisk, many times low reward area. Some of the things i would love to see us talk about, the thin blue line demotes a separation between order and chaos. It should always be there. No one should look at our police force and know this is what keeps us all safe no matter who we are or what our beliefs or color of our skin. Its what keeps us different than the rest of the world. A safe, Orderly Police force that carries out our laws faithfully and executes them to the best of their ability. But too i served in that Police Working group and been all over the country, and we have problems in our police force because there are too many folks who are bad actors who get pushed from one job to another. Talk honestly, talk honestly. You got bad actors who cant make it one job, go another police force. Do you know him . Yeah, he got another job. One police chief is saying thank god. The other police chief is saying i dont know what i got into. You know why . Pay. Benefits. The issues of communities. I live in a Rural Community in north georgia. My north georgia kids who live in some of my smaller counties, they are going to go to work, if they can with the sheriffs department, but they are making an amount that they can go 40 miles down the road and double their salary. Or if they cant make it in one of those, they know they can go somewhere else and get another job no matter their record. As we come to this hearing today, it does need to be a hearing of what ill call the terrible acts. We need to acknowledge them and we need to admit that Justice Needs to be served. There is nothing about this hearing that the 98 or 99, whatever percent you want to do of those men and women who wake up every day with only one responsibility. Taking care of their communities. And taking care of the lives that they have. And they want nothing more than these bad actors to go away so that they can do their job. And when they lay their head down at night, they know they have done their best, they want to be respected because they have done their job. And not because somebody else has acted badly. When that happens then our Law Enforcement understands we respect them, love them, and we are going to help them when they need help. For every other 10yearold kid who watches their dad go out, not knowing if they are going to come home or when they do come home they are beat up and battered because they were out helping others. When they see their dad or their mom upset because their profession, their profession, their calling is tarnished by those who would tarnish it, justice must be swift, it must be firm, and it must be fairly applied because if not, we lose who we are. We would not be who we are without our police force. We now need to help them make it better. Ith that i yield back. Chair nadler i want to note the gentlelady from massachusetts, ms. Pressley, is here with us. We thank her for attending. I will now introduce todays witnesses. Gwen carr is the mother of eric gardner who died during the course of his arrest by Police Officers. As a result thee became leading advocate for improving policing practices and facilitates this stops the day program through the nonprofit eric, eliminating racism and inequality collectively. Shes here today to share her personal experience. Ron davis served as director of the u. S. Department of Justice CommunityOriented Policing Services office from 2013 to 2017. December, 2014, he was appointed to serve as executive director of the president s task force on 21st Century Policing. Prior to serving as cops director, he was chief of police in california for more than eight years and served 20 years with the Oakland Police department. Director davis received his b. A. From Southern Illinois university and completed the Senior Executives state and local Government Program at harvard university, Kennedy School of government. Patrick yoes, captain patrick yoes, National President of the fraternal order of police. Since 1984 hes served in a variety of rolls in the st. Charles Sheriffs Office in louisiana and currently the commander of the special services department. A bachelor of science from mount january State University and associated science from nickles State University. The reverend al sharpton is founder and president of the National Action network, a National CivilRights Advocacy organization. He attended Brooklyn College and received an honorary doctorate of divinity, from bethune cook university, Virginia Union university, and Honorary Degree from a. P. Bible come ledge. James blake is a former tennis professional and host of the tennis channel. Hes also the tournament director for the miami open. I suppose we can get good tickets. Mr. Blake is here today to speak about his personal experiences ith Law Enforcement. Geno hawkins has served more than 30 years in Law Enforcement, and current chief of nay yetville poliCe Department. She also serves as executive word member of the National Organization of black Law Enforcement executives. Chief hawkins received her bachelors of science from Georgia State university. And masters from Johns Hopkins university. Shes a graduate of the f. B. I. National associates academy. Heather macdonald is the thomas w. Smith fellow at the Manhattan Institute for policy research. Shes written numerous books on the criminal Justice System and previously clerked for judge steven rhine heart on the u. S. Court of appeals to the ninth circuit. She received her b. A. From yale university, m. A. From Claire College and j. D. From Stanford University law school. Phillip atiba goff is the cofounder and president for policing equities. He serves as professor of Police Equity at john j. College of criminal justice. Hes written extensively on policing issues. He received his a. B. From harvard and m. A. And ph. D. From stanford. Finally, linda garcia, is the policing Campaign Director at the Leadership Conference on civil and human rights. Before joining the Leadership Conference, ms. Garcia served as a Trial Attorney in the special litigation section of the Civil Rights Division of the department of justice. She also served as a law clerk to judge john gleason in the Eastern District of new york. Ms. Clark received her b. A. From Hunter College and j. D. From fordham law school. My alma matter. We welcome all of our distinguished witnesses and thank femme for participating in todays hearing. If you would please rise and ill swear you in. Raise your hand, please. Do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury the testimony you are about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge and belief so help you god. You may be seated. Let the record show the witnesses answered in the affirmative. Please note that each of your written statements will be entered into the record in its entire. Accordingly, i ask that you summarize your testimony in five minutes. To help you stay within that time there is a timing light on your table. With the light switches from green to yellow you have one minute to conclude your testimony. When the light turns red, it signals your five minutes have expired. Ms. Carr, you may begin. Ms. Carr good morning. Chair nadler turn the mike on. Speak closely into it. Ms. Carr chairman nadler and members of the Judiciary Committee, i thank you for having me this morning. My name is gwen carr, i am the mother of eric gardner. Five years ago my beloved son eric was murdered by people who were supposed to serve and protect. On july 17, the Nypd Police Officers approached my son. One of them put him in an illegal chokehold. Eric cried out 11 times, i cant breathe. 11 times he said i cant breathe. But those officers who were on the scene that day, they didnt seem to care. Eric died that day. There was a video that was captured that captured the incident. Including the chokehold and my sons cry saying that he couldnt breathe. This went viral around the world. So my thought is today how come no one was held accountable . No one was held and charged for y sons death. Not only the officer that murdered my son but all the officers who were on the scene need to stand accountable for his death that day. I will never forget that day in july. I got up that morning, i spoke to eric, i spoke to him for about 10 minutes. And afterwards we said our goodbyes. He said i love you, mom. I said i love you, too, eric. Never knowing that would be our last and final conversation. My entire life was uprooted on that july day. I felt helpless in a dark place, scattered in millions of pieces. It is impossible to describe the pain that i felt that day. Losing a child is just inscribable. Having the burden of finding out exactly what happened to your child by the police who was responsible for his demise. How is it a person supposed to get answers . Who do she go to for help . Most people cant even comprehend how difficult it is to suddenly lose a child and to fight for five years and just et an ounce of accountability. It has impacted our lives in many devastating ways. Almost two months ago i lost my husband. Sense my partner in every of the word. He fought the long fight with me even though he wasnt in front of the cameras, he supported me and he really supported the the. Cause. My grand you daughter, erica, she died december 17 of a heart attack. She was only 27 years old. But when my son was murdered, she fought the good fight. She fought until she became ill. Ill say she died of a broken heart. These are the wounds of the seen and unseen from the police brutality. The loss of loved ones and no recourse, no accountability. The entire family is traumatized. Each and every time we enter the ourtroom or watch the officers responsible for my sons death get a pay raise. Or hear the department of justice saying they are not going to seek charges. Or when an officer who is the Commanding Officer of the person who was on the scene when my son was murdered said it was not a big deal. That eric laid on the ground d. O. A. I come before you today not only to share my sons story or the long quest of justice that we have been seeking for five years , but i urge you to take imme