Good morning to all the wonderful members who have joined us and i want to take a moment to send a message to michigan, to our subcommittee, this is our first hearing with our subcommittee and we are delighted to have you join us. Want toe begin today, i play a video that will set the stage for the discussion we are about to have. Please play the video. [video clip] permeatesupremacy every order of society and every institution. Whomever is engaged in those groups, wherever that might outed a number of Law Enforcement officers who have connection to White Supremacy. Primarily, we have discovered that through social media accounts. It is a good day for a chokehold. Sise that this piece of dealt with quickly. Or, f these muslims. Bad in any situation. What if i told you that all those inflammatory words were posted by former or Current Police officers . They are just a sampling found ofthe plainview project, officers using social media woment muslims, blacks, in eight jurisdictions of various sizes and geographic areas. Found posts that appeared to endorse violence by officers or members of the public, show bias against minority groups, use dehumanizing language to call protesters or people of color animals or savages. The deeper dive into officers in philly, where a postwar flag one third have been subjects of civil rights and totality complaints, many settling for the plaintiffs. Ramfficers wanting to people with obama bumper stickers. Sexism, bigotry, threats of violence that call for threats of execution by protesters. Story,urn out of this Police Officers have been fired after a routine audit of a patrol camera that was uncovered that authorities describe as very racist comments against africanamericans. An internal probe to the Wilmington Police department shows heat fueled conversations between two veteran officers. Protests being told that the protests would soon lead to a civil war and he is ready. He goes on to say that he will buy a new Assault Rifle and as soon we are going to go out and start slaughtering them. He says that the civil war is needed to get rid of the expletive mess. Call, heing a phone refers to a woman he arrested as that shed, saying delivered a bullet in her head right then. Peopletalk about killing for generations. Officers blame their comments on the stress of todays climate in Law Enforcement. A veteran San Antonio Police officer fired over the treatment of a criminal trespass suspect last summer. That officer caught repeatedly using the nword and other profanities during the arrest of a black man. For what . [beep]. Eing a a a Police Officer uses racist slur. Rookieokie, a deep a troy Police Officer fired for his post on snapchat. The officer will be off the payroll effective tomorrow morning. Heres the quote. Another night to wrangle up these zoo animals, in reference to detroit residents. We do all that we possibly can do to root out officers on the problem of white supremacist violence in america. George floyd, Breonna Taylor we have also held separate free things on Police Brutality in communities of color and rampant violations of the First Amendment and civil rights protests. By the Trump Administration. Today, we will examine how these different threats to the american people, namely how White Supremacist Organization ideas and attitudes have come to infiltrate and target certain domains of Law Enforcement. The bloody trail of violent White Supremacy now splattered across america. Charleston, south carolina, where white supremacist slaughtered nine thecanamericans and in episcopal church. Virginia, where hundreds of neonazi and klansmen rioted and wounded several people, a terrible attack by automobile. Pittsburgh, pennsylvania, where a neonazi killed 11 people and wounded six at the tree of life synagogue. Er antisemiticth rampage. El paso, texas, where a white supremacist hiked up on antiimmigrant hate killed 23 people and wounded 23 others in a rampage at walmart. According to the antidefamation extremist of all related murders between 2009 in 2018 were committed by rightwing extremists. Of center for disease studies, which analyzed over 900 attacks in the u. S. Since 1994, found there have been nearly six times as many victims of violence from white wing groups as from others. In 2020, they found that over 90 of attacks were conducted by rightwing groups. These are the facts. Ofe covid19, this a virus violent White Supremacy is spreading. The Southern Poverty Law Center documented a 30 increase in the number of hate groups over the last several years, and hate crimes are trending up. That the with covid19 Trump Administration has decided to mislead the public eye downplaying the problem. The department of Homeland Security whistleblowers stated that they specifically modified draft language on White Supremacy to make the threat feel less severe. The spread of violent White Supremacy is a threat to everyone, but disproportionately a threat to black and brown wnmmunities black and bro communities. Ad are estimating this is problem to Police Officers. According to the antidefamation league, White Supremacists and far right extremist groups have killed 51 Police Officer since 1990. 80 3 of shootouts between police and extremists involve white running white wing extremists, with them being responsible for more than half. The unredacted memo we released from the fbi states that, White Supremacists presence among Law Enforcement is a concern to the access they may have for restricted areas, loanable and sabotage into elected officials, or protected persons that they could see as targets for violence. White supremacy is a deadly threat to the safety of Law Enforcement officers, as well as the Public Safety, generally. Farright extremists killed a Law Enforcement officer. One of the Boogaloo Boys is a former air force sergeant suspected in the murder of the santa cruz sheriff earlier this year. In february, a White Supremacists killed an officer in alabama. In 2006 the fbi released an whiteigence assessment, supremacists infiltration of Law Enforcement. The fbi identified two distinct problems. They noted the problem of white supremacist groups infiltrating lawenforcement. We have seen a lot of evidence of that in the 14 years since the fbis assessment as officers have been dismissed for active membership in the kkk, and other similar groups. Alsohear testimony identified a second problem. Law enforcement officers who have no formal affiliation with racist groups, but who sympathize with the racist ideology. This has been in plain view of this period of resurgence racists in the country. A journalist published the plainview project, which collected over 5000 postings displaying White Supremacists, andphobic, misogynistic violent facebook material from Police Officers in each different city. We invited the fbi to come today. He bureau refused to come they have no evidence that this is a widespread problem, demanding the fbis attention. Have attempted to disavow their own 2006 intelligence assessment, which is every sign of being an authentic document. They did provide us an unredacted version of that assessment, which i am releasing today to the public can better understand how the fbi understood the threat, and judged the subsequent actions, or lack there of accordingly. The redacted passages include warnings for the american people. The fbi warns, white supremacist infiltration of law have passivean tolerance of racism within communities. The fbi also cautioned that volunteercers might their professional resources to the white supremacist causes in which they racially sympathize. These are chilling conclusions. Rather than spell out the threat for the american people, the fbi has suppressed them forom public view for 13 years. For the first time we can see the fbi believed internally that White Supremacy and filtration Law Enforcement departments was a serious problem. A potential abuse of power and authorities on the street. A source of potential violence against the civilian population. , as we watched videos depicting the brutal and bad treatment of black lives matter, are videos of them treating white militia as allies. A groupe a warning to of armed a white man asking them to discreetly stay inside the buildings after curfew so it would not look like police were playing favorites when a tear gassed protesters. In outlook turkey, officers were caught referring to white vigilantes as armed friendlys. In kenosha, wisconsin, officers pushed protesters towards a group of armed a white civilians. Police officers offered water to se armed men, one of them and rittenhouse got away, despite walking up to police weapon, whiler onlookers identified him as the killer of two innocent americans. Depends oncontact fair and neutral enforcement of the law to protect the whole citizen jury of violence and state violence. Theust work to disentangle state from groups and individuals that subscribe to violent white supremacist ideology. Seeking things like harm on africanamerican, asian americans, jewish americans, lgbtq, anyone who stands in the way of a race war and a civil war that the extreme right is calling for in america today. Lawocal or state enforcement or being infiltrated by isis or al qaeda or any other terrorist group, we would consider it an immediate Public Safety. Infiltration by violent White Supremacy is no less of a threat. To confront it effectively we must understand it. That is the purpose of todays hearing. So, i now would like to recognize the distinguished Ranking Member for an Opening Statement. Soent a bit over my time, please feel free to take the equal amount of time you need. Thank you mr. Chairman as always you is gracious to make sure we have equal time i appreciate that. s as you know, this is the fourth in the series of White Supremacy we have had a number of good exchanges diving into the fax over the course of the previous three hearings as you remember i was moved and wanted to understand the situation of the virginia a graduate that hit close to home and talking to her mother who lost her daughter down home in charlottesville i used to go as a student to see these events unfold it was important to have that conversation i think its a friend for us to have this conversation. I would note and the chairman knows for us to have a hearing on Human Trafficking theres 40 Million People around the world and 20000 and the United States have Law Enforcement engagement and estimates estimates of three or 400,000. We should find time in our schedule such as that that is an important issue if you take a three or 400,000 people that are victims of Human Trafficking we can look at that. I question the motives but i would have to acknowledge it is obvious over the last x number of months that they really want to trade a narrative that lawenforcement is systemically on racist and i categorically reject that categorization of the almost 800,000 Law Enforcement personnel and as a former prosecutors firmly believe we can root out crime and we root out racism wherever we find it that is our job. I fully agree with that but it is a dangerous path that my colleagues are pursuing to define Law Enforcement personnel and systemically racist. That is what is happening thats where this focus is doing. By the way the hearing is just focused on Law Enforcement for my democratic colleagues have made it abundantly clear the United States of america is systemically we racist. Thats the position of the modern Democratic Party that our nation is systemically racist and that to me is fundamentally at odds with what the nation has stood for and actually has done. I come from a family my greatgreatgrandfather is a texas ranger in the county am sitting in right now. I am proud of that. My grandfather chief the case since the water texas. He died of cancer when my dad was seven he barely knew him. He had just come back from the war my grandfather was a good and faithful servant is not racist in any way what i understand is my grandfather and my grandmother was a single mom in west texas the first woman county clerk because my grandfather died of cancer. I stand by my grandfather and Law Enforcement officers as the assistant United States attorney working in the Attorneys Office the Eastern District of texas. When i was a First Assistant attorney general. Theres 4100 employees. Irrespective of race if 1 percent do anything crazy or insane or mean or illegal racist at any given moment, 1 percent that is 41 people. Its my job as the attorney general to track them down and have an investigation and figure out what is happening corporate part of the embrace and believe that. But when the institution of Congress Makes a blanket statement using viral videos to define a classic human being standing on the wall i am troubled by that. There is significant amount of evidence to suggest it is in structural bias, Chronic Behavior there are 70 million interactions roughly. 70million interactions between lawenforcement and civilians every year. Now if 1 million of those are troubling are problematic for Different Reasons one of which might be race and one almost certainly is race then we should note that out and if you categorically define those interactions with personnel and those as systemically racist and you undermine the entire rule of law and see this unfold right now in front of us the past few months sparked a resurgence on the left to be more violence in the streets and more place officers killed in the line of duty and those communities are suffering because they are in the hands of the wall a small they cannot go to the bus stop to get to work because somebody smashes it to pieces they can go to the corner store motors ransacked and they closed for good the owner in the shop has been there for years snuck off 45 percent of black businesses have been decimated since the virus and the unrest there are real consequences to a street. They cannot call the police for help in many cases just yesterday in austin running through foods downtown austin they called the police there is no place to get there because the city council slashed them by one third in the wisdom these false narratives Law Enforcement tends to be less aggressive to pursue traders of which are the victims include all bases and in those two weeks following more than 700 place officers were reported across 20 major cities 37 percent higher and the murder rate these are people, murders what about the Police Officer shootings with intent to kill like in louisville . One of them was black. Defending the police and encourages violence in our streets in the name of policy harms our communities you cannot defend the police. For example homicides year after year rank first at 64 percent and in the city of austin as i said before d funded one third of the Police Department. 43 percent of increase of murders those a statutory rape 5 percent increase in vandalism. They canceled the 144 to permit the most diverse class in history half of them were minority and they canceled it. All those people wanted to serve in a monstrous meant and help protect over half minority. That class is going. At least 46 Police Officers killed in the line of duty this year i would all of their names on the floor of the house last week where the hell is the nba wearing their names on the back of their jersey . Where is the outrage those officers who lost their line one lost her life and duty . Is 24 yearold happily married dragged by a car dead. Is officer killed with the Nuclear Assault and on the sergeant ambushed and shot and killed. Twentyfour yearold officer shot with an open fire. 50 percent increase of officers killed in the line of duty cities are defending Police Departments this committee in my opinion gives a very idea was a streets property man that should not be nonnegotiable is not negotiable to me as a member of congress mr. Chairma