The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“Crime (Executive Calendar)” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S5631-S5632 on Sept. 16, 2020.
The Department is one of the oldest in the US, focused primarily on law enforcement and the federal prison system. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, detailed wasteful expenses such as $16 muffins at conferences and board meetings.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
Crime
Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, as we all know and as any American who has watched the news over the summer knows, there has been a terrible increase in crime in America's cities. Assaults, shootings, murders have been higher this year, and my home State has not been safe from this trend. In fact, in St. Louis, MO, there were 55 murders in the month of July. That compares to 22 murders a year earlier in July, which we thought were way too many then. In Kansas City, MO, homicides in the first 6 months of this year were about 40 percent higher than they were last year.
One of the Kansas City victims was a 4-year-old boy named LeGend Taliferro. He was murdered in the early hours of July 29 while he was asleep--a 4-year-old boy murdered while he was asleep--by a random shooting, violence going on outside his home. So early in July, the Justice Department launched an effort in Kansas City that has become a national effort, which they called Operation LeGend, named for little LeGend Taliferro. Under Operation LeGend, Federal law enforcement officers are working alongside local police to solve crimes, to make arrests, to track down fugitives, and to prepare cases for trial so criminals can be held accountable. The key phrase there is
``alongside.'' Federal agents aren't going in and taking over the police department; they are going in to add assistance to the police department.
On that topic, there was no immediate raid of trafficking centers or drug gangs or anything like that. I, frankly, thought the Justice Department was wrong in not announcing earlier to Federal officials and local officials what they were going to do and when they were going to do it, but I think we worked with them to see that that isn't going to continue to be the case. In fact, in early August, they made a similar determination to go into St. Louis.
One of the advantages of having Federal officers work with the local police in these cases is, one, they bring a whole lot more intensity to the moment. With the extra help, suddenly something becomes possible that wasn't possible before. Also, many of the people arrested can face Federal charges as well as other sentences.
Certainly in our State--in Kansas City and Missouri both--the two different U.S. attorney's offices have done a great job working with local officials before this but are even better able to look at what Federal charges might be faced to take some of that load off the local prosecutor and also look for another way to get these people off the street.
By September 1, in Kansas City, the operation had led to the arrest of 355 people suspected of serious crimes in Kansas City. More than 100 of those 355 people have been charged in Federal court. In St. Louis, where I said before that the government decided to bring Operation LeGend--the Justice Department made that decision in early August, and by September 1, there were already 359 arrests, and 128 of those people arrested were looking at Federal charges as well.
In addition to St. Louis and Kansas City, the Department of Justice has launched Operation LeGend in seven other cities. This is not a Federal overreach. It is not the Federal Government, again, taking over local law enforcement. It is not the first step toward martial law. It is not a crackdown on peaceful protests. What it is, is a cooperative effort with cities that have been suffering from increases in violent crime.
Under this operation, officers have arrested, nationwide, more than 2,000 people, including 163 people for murder, and one of the people arrested was the alleged killer of 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro.
The rise of violence in cities this year--and particularly the cities I am talking about that have benefited, I think, from Operation LeGend--has been incredibly rapid and unbearably destructive, not to mention totally unacceptable. It has taken a toll on lives unlived, families torn apart, communities terrorized, people wondering what is going to happen when they or their children walk out the front door or play in the backyard or, like little LeGend, are sound asleep in their beds.
Nothing we do can fully heal the damage, certainly, that these victims of violent crime and their families have suffered, but we can get the justice that both the victim and people who care about them deserve.
We may have a lot of disagreements in the Congress, but I hope we can agree that violent criminals belong behind bars. I hope we can all agree that all parents deserve a safe neighborhood where they can raise their children. I hope we can all agree that the police do a difficult and dangerous job, and they deserve all the support and appreciation we can give them.
Not long ago, LeGend Taliferro's mother spoke about her son and the pain of losing him. She said: ``He was a ball of joy, and I want his legacy to live on and I want us to continue to fight against violence and get justice for my son and others.'' That is the end of that mother's quote, but it is not the end of a life that mother will now live without her son or the life he didn't get to live. And there are too many lives that didn't get to be lived, too many lives lost through needless violence.
Operation LeGend gives local law enforcement the valuable support they need to get violent criminals off the street. Again, it was named for an innocent 4-year-old boy. It could have been named for any of the thousands of other victims of violent criminals in dozens of other cities this year. It could have been named for St. Louis Police Officer Tamarris Bohannon, who was killed in the line of duty last month. It could have been named for the two officers in California who had a sneak attack as they were sitting and trying to secure the local transportation center just in the last couple of days. It is a tragedy that it had to be named for anyone.
While some people have sought to defund the police and to disparage the police, Operation LeGend is successful because it supports the police. These are some of the hardest jobs in America, second only to the families of people who care deeply about their loved ones who have decided to serve in that job to protect us all.
American communities are safer because of Operation LeGend. They will be safer as we continue to work toward greater and more effective community policing. They will be safer when people who are violent criminals are no longer walking around to perpetuate further violence.
I salute the Justice Department for their efforts and the local departments that have reached out and taken advantage of the moment to get something done that they were not able to get done by themselves
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
