Normally, they hold these kinds of hearings about foreign countries – often those American officials want to invade. But, on Tuesday, members of a senate subcommittee looked into the state of civil and human rights in the US.
In his final hearing as Chairman of the Judiciary subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called on the panel to reform the criminal justice system in the next Congress.
Sen. Durbin said the regular killing of “unarmed African Americans, men and boys” has left the committee with “more work to do.” He referred, by name, to Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner, and acknowledged the nationwide protests in response to these killings.
Pointing to specific legislation, Sen. Durbin called for the passage of the Smarter Sentencing Act, an update to the Voting Rights Act, and reforms relaxing restrictions on the voting rights of felons.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who’s poised to take the gavel in the subcommittee next year, also called for passage of the Smarter Sentencing Act. He then steered the hearing toward promoting a number of conservative causes.
“The most compelling civil rights issue of the 21st century is the need to expand school choice and education options,” Cruz said.
“I would add as well that a disturbing pattern has been demonstrated over the several years of the federal government violating the constitutional rights of the citizenry,” he continued. Cruz cited “the IRS disregarding the first amendment rights of citizens,” “a consistent disregard for the second amendment” and “a disregard of religious freedom” as examples.
Among the witnesses testifying before the subcommittee, included three fellow lawmakers, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), all minority Members of Congress.
They shared personal stories about civil rights shortcomings in the United States.
“I think of when my daughter was stopped because she was driving in ‘too nice a car’ with her friends in her own neighborhood or when I was stopped coming into the Capitol complex earlier in my career because I didn’t ‘look like a Congressman,’” said Rep. Gutierrez. “Too many have faced profiling, subtle and explicit, annoying, — and yes, potentially dangerous — when the profiler has a badge and a gun.”
Rep. Ellison argued that civil rights problems in the US are tied to economic inequality.
“We cannot continue to try to address our economic problems with criminal justice solutions,” he said. “If we only buy body cameras and don’t address structural and economic inequality, we will find ourselves here again, year after year.”
Senator Jon Cornyn (R-Texas) took exception with some of the concerns raised in the hearing.
“I know your focus is on the criminal justice system. I would say I hope that this hearing will take a long view,” he said. “Obviously on our minds are the recent tragedies, but I think caution would tell us we ought to wait until there’s been a thorough investigation and all of the fact before we draw any conclusion.”
Sen. Cornyn also said he worried that “the recent tragedies would somehow distract us in some ways from the great success law enforcement has had.”
The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), released a statement ahead of the hearing, summarizing some of the concerns Democrats have with this type of cop veneration. He called for passage of the USA Freedom Act to reform the NSA’s telephony metadata dragnet, and appealed for the reining in of police militarization.
“Equipping police officers with the tools of war does nothing to repair a torn community,” Leahy said.
On Monday, in a bid to address some of the civil rights concerns brought up at the hearing, the Department of Justice revealed new guidelines forbidding federal agents from using racial profiling. However, the guidance does not cover police officers routinely accused of some of the worst profiling–border patrol agents, and local and state law enforcement officials.
