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“UPHOLDING CIVIL RIGHTS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H6115-H6116 on July 12, 2018.
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:
UPHOLDING CIVIL RIGHTS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, earlier this week, I sent a bouquet of flowers and a big Puerto Rican flag to Mia Irizarry, a young Puerto Rican woman who lives in Chicago who celebrated her 24th birthday last month.
My wife and I wanted to let her know that we support her and we admire her. You see, her birthday party at a park in Cook County, Illinois, didn't turn out the way she expected. By now, most of us have seen the video of that incident. A 62-year-old man, whom police have identified as Timothy Trybus, verbally abused and harassed Ms. Irizarry because she was wearing a shirt that depicts the flag of our U.S. colony, Puerto Rico.
What unfolds over the 30 minutes is a man physically and verbally intimidating a very polite and poised 24-year-old American woman while a uniformed police officer stands by and does nothing to intervene or help. The officer has been identified as Patrick Connor of the Forest Preserve District of the Cook County Police Department.
So an older racist yells at a young Latina because he doesn't like what she and other Puerto Ricans living in ``his'' community represent.
Is that news? No. Sadly, no.
While most police officers would have done the right thing in that incident, this guy was caught on tape doing the wrong thing or, more accurately, doing nothing at all.
For me, this was very personal, because something similar happened to me, and something similar has happened to most Puerto Ricans, most Latinos, most people of color, and most people who are somehow different in this country, at one point or another in their lives.
Twenty-two years ago, when I was a sophomore in Congress, I was entering one of the Capitol office buildings with my daughter, Omaira, and my niece, Maritza. I was new, and I was dressed somewhat casually, because we were just returning from a Puerto Rican celebration, and my daughter was carrying a Puerto Rican flag. The flag came unfurled as it went through the X-ray machine, and one of the officers wanted to stop us from coming in.
I showed my official ID as a Member of Congress, to which the officer said: ``I don't think so,'' indicating that she thought my ID was a fake and that I couldn't possibly be a Member of Congress. She stated my ID was fake, in fact.
There was also the comment at the end: Why don't you and your people go back where you came from?
Twenty-two years after that incident, we are still seeing the same kind of bigotry, the same kind of misunderstanding about who Latinos and Puerto Ricans are, and the same fear that we are outsiders who don't belong here.
Sadly, the same fear and otherness is extended to other people: the handicapped, gay and lesbians, transgender Americans, immigrants, Muslims, and people of color. The list just goes on.
This is certainly not the first time, but, right now, we are in a moment in history when Americans are being told to fear other Americans. One of the reasons I think the video went viral is because it is emblematic of our times.
Bullies who do not understand the first thing about their fellow human beings--Latinos, people of color, immigrants, or Muslims--are being taught to fear that something they have is being taken away from them. Some now feel it is their right, their privilege, and maybe even their duty to go off in public and take action.
I wonder where they get such an idea.
When our President calls Puerto Ricans lazy and expensive to help, it hurts our Nation. When he calls Mexicans rapists and murderers, or calls refugees fleeing violence with their children illegal immigrants, or calls transgender soldiers a threat to our country, and says good people on both sides of a racist rally where a woman was killed are the same, it filters down.
Maybe the President is just reflecting back the fear, anger, and misunderstanding of the voters he wants to mobilize. But all the lying, hostility, and racism are clearly taking a toll on our country.
I just hope that we are all as poised as Ms. Irizarry was, if and when someone gets in your face, whether you are wearing a pussy hat, or a hijab, or a rainbow flag, or a Black lives matter T-shirt.
I hope we are all more willing than Officer Connor to take action when someone is trying to bully someone else. I know most Americans are not like Mr. Trybus, who is afflicted with fear, ignorance, and probably a substance abuse problem.
But the video makes it clear that we all have to step up to defend the United States from this tide of misogyny, homophobia, and xenophobia, and stand up for what America is really all about.
Please, let's just do it all together. If you see hate, stand up and speak.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record my letter to the Civil Rights Division at Main Justice for an investigation into this matter.
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC, July 10, 2018.Hon. John M. Gore,Acting Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice,
Civil Rights Division, Washington, DC.
Dear Acting Assistant Attorney General Gore: I watched video footage of a woman being harassed by an intoxicated male at a forest preserve in Cook County and I write to express my outrage and demand that the Civil Rights Division does all it can to investigate this incident.
This past June, Mia Irizzary recorded her unfortunate encounter with an intoxicated male while at a Forest Preserve of Cook County park outside Chicago. An officer with the Forest Preserve looked on, avoided responding to the man and ignored the pleas for help from the woman who was being harassed. It is clear from the video that she was accosted by the man because of her ethnicity and wearing a Puerto Rican flag T-shirt. The man makes reference to his fear that Hispanics are coming to the United States to change him.
What is even more unacceptable than the man's behavior is the unwillingness of a uniformed officer to intervene when the woman's civil rights were being challenged and the man used physical and verbal intimidation. I have learned that the man was eventually arrested by a different uniformed officer and the initial officer has been consigned to ``desk duty'' pending an investigation.
Because of the seriousness of the encounter, the fact that it targeted the Puerto Rican community in and around my District, and growing number of anti-Latino and anti-immigrant hate crimes being reported, I demand the Civil Rights Division investigate to see if federal civil rights charges are warranted.
I would like to remind you of your division's responsibilities which are to enforce federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, disability, religion, familial status and national origin.
I understand this incident on a gut level because almost exactly the same thing happened to me when I was a freshman in Congress. I was denied entry into the Capitol complex by U.S. Capitol Police despite being a Congressman with identification, because my daughter was carrying a Puerto Rican flag and the officer doubted that I could possibly be a Member of Congress. So this kind of incident is unfortunately not unusual and though we did not have viral videos 25 years ago, I wish I had done more then to stop the kind of behavior on display in Ms. Irizarry's video, so that we can prevent the cycles of hatred and bigotry that often repeat themselves today.
Thank you and I look forward to your response. If you have any questions please contact me or Rafael Hurtado of my staff.
Sincerely,
Luis V. Gutierrez,Member of Congress.
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