‘It’s An Awful Terrible Idea’: Tom Suozzi Rails Against Defund The Police Supporters

3 months ago

Last month, Rep. Tin Suozzi (D-NY) questioned law enforcement officials on innovation during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00 The gentleman yields. I now recognize Mr. Swasey, the gentleman from New York.

00:06 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me first start by welcoming my colleague, Senator Tim Kennedy,

00:10 now Congressman Kennedy, to Washington. He's a great public servant. He's done a fantastic

00:15 job in New York State, and I know he'll do a fantastic job here in the United States

00:20 Congress, and he's going to make a lot of friends here because of the seriousness with

00:23 which he takes his job. I want to thank all the witnesses for being here today. We really

00:29 appreciate the time that you've taken to help to educate us. I know you listen to a lot

00:33 of this stuff back and forth and you wonder what makes sense because people are just trying

00:36 to score political points on both sides of this, and we've got to start working together

00:40 more to try and solve the problems we face in our country, and we've really got to all

00:44 support law enforcement. I was the mayor of a small city, my hometown of Glen Cove, and

00:50 I was the county executive of Nassau County where I oversaw the 11th largest police force

00:54 in the United States of America where we reduced the crime rate to the lowest of any community

00:59 in the nation, over 500,000 people. And I know what an important job you do. I know

01:05 the challenges you're facing right now because of all the attacks that have been made on

01:10 law enforcement over the years. It's not fair. It's not right. There are people trying to

01:14 do their jobs. One of the dumbest statements that's ever been created anywhere in our country

01:19 that is misused so often is just to fund the police idea. It's an awful, terrible idea.

01:24 If anything, I think that most people in the United States Congress agree upon is we need

01:28 to figure out how to get more money to law enforcement. And I think that there are extremists

01:33 on both sides. Some people that want to defund the police, other people want to defund the

01:38 FBI, people want to cut the COPS program. We need to get more money for law enforcement,

01:44 and I think most people on both sides of the aisle believe on that, believe in that. Do

01:49 we need to fund the police? Yes. Is mental health a problem? Mr. Bryan, I think I was

01:54 just saying, I've read statistics over the year, 75% of the people in jail have a drug,

01:59 alcohol, or mental health problem. 75% of the people in jail have a drug, alcohol, or

02:05 mental health problem. And those are problems we need to address earlier in life before

02:09 everything blows up into a crisis. We need to go after bad actors. Are there bad actors

02:14 in the police department? Yeah, there are. But the large, large, overwhelming majority

02:19 of law enforcement officials are good people trying to do the right thing to make the world

02:23 a better place to live in, and our society would not exist without the good work of law

02:29 enforcement. So in thanking you, I'm thanking everybody you represent in law enforcement.

02:34 So what can we do with the federal government? One size is not going to fit all. You've got

02:37 these little small communities, you've got these big communities, you've got border communities,

02:40 non-border communities, you've got places with heavy drugs where they want to carry

02:44 like Mr. Jimenez was saying earlier, AR-15s and body armor, and you've got little small

02:48 towns as well. One of the great things that happened when I was the mayor of Glen Cove

02:52 was the cops program that President Clinton did. They wanted to put 100,000 more cops

02:57 on the streets, and we could get a grant to bring more cops into our local little police

03:01 department. It was a fantastic program. I want to know, would you support the idea of

03:05 funding for grants to hire more officers or buy equipment or do whatever you think is

03:11 right for your department? Would you like to see the federal government provide more

03:14 money for law enforcement? I'll just ask you all quickly. Mr. Bays, would you like to see

03:18 more money from the federal government for law enforcement?

03:20 Yes, sir. Absolutely.

03:21 Mr. Chapman?

03:22 Of course.

03:23 Mr. Bullock?

03:24 Absolutely.

03:25 Mr. Bryant?

03:26 Yes.

03:27 We all agree. Everybody agrees. We need more money from the federal government for law

03:30 enforcement. Now, one of the things, I can't talk about all the things, but one of the

03:33 things we can do at the federal level in addition to providing funding is to try and address

03:39 laws that would fill holes that exist in some communities. Mr. Bays, I was very interested

03:44 to listen to you earlier. It sounded like you support red flag laws, the idea of a police

03:50 officer or a family member or somebody being able to go before a law enforcement official

03:55 like a judge and say, "Listen, this person should really not have a gun. We need to take

04:00 this gun away from that person." Go through due process, go through a procedure, but have

04:05 professionals testify and take guns away from people that shouldn't really have guns. Do

04:09 you believe in red flag laws?

04:13 I don't use the term red flag laws because it's loaded language that gets people all

04:18 upset, but extreme risk protection orders, the ability to take a weapon with due process

04:24 available, someone who is mentally ill or unstable or we believe has capability and

04:30 intent. The governor of Tennessee proposed something like that. It didn't go. I would

04:38 answer yes, but with different words.

04:41 The words you use are, say it again?

04:44 Extreme risk protection orders.

04:46 I know you have extreme risk protection orders type of laws in Virginia already, Mr. Chapman,

04:50 so I'm not going to ask you, but I want to ask Mr. Bullock. You don't have those in Texas.

04:54 Do you think we should have that as a nationwide basis?

04:57 I believe there's value in providing additional layers of protection. In Texas, one of the

05:01 situations that was mentioned, if we do place someone on an emergency commitment due to

05:05 mental health, we have the ability to seize the firearm, but it's temporary. It only lasts

05:10 for maybe a week, depending upon a variety of different circumstances, but the ability

05:15 to make sure that individuals we know are at risk don't have access to weapons, I think

05:20 is valuable.

05:21 It'd be great if we had extreme risk protection laws nationwide, I believe. I just wanted

05:24 to try and get some support from the different witnesses here today. Thank you so much. Appreciate

05:29 your time. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.

‘It’s An Awful Terrible Idea’: Tom Suozzi Rails Against Defund The Police Supporters

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