Elijah Cummings
As we continue to move forward toward the rebuilding of mutual trust and cooperation between our community and the police, we must not lose sight of this reality: far too many of our neighbors are being harmed by the plague of violent crime.
As we work toward bipartisan consensus on the issues of police accountability and sentencing reform, the public’s safety — as well as genuine and effective consideration for the victims of crime —must continue to be our primary considerations.
Consider these facts:
As early as August of last year, more than 30 cities were reporting increases in violence from the year before, and many were seeing an unacceptable spike in murders, including Baltimore, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis.
Baltimore City homicides, which totaled 211 in 2014, increased to 344 in 2015. According to the Baltimore Sun, more than 90 percent of the victims were Black, and more than one-half were between the ages of 18 and 30.
Perhaps most appalling of all, the local death toll from gun violence last year included 22 young people under the age of 18 — 10 under the age of 10.
For the victims of this violence and their grieving families, there is little solace to be found in the fact that this level of suffering is not unique to our community. They need and deserve action — on the part of both government and the public at large — even more than they deserve our sympathy.
This imperative must be central to our objective of balanced, criminal justice reform.
Just as those who are charged with having committed a crime have a constitutional right to due process and unbiased justice, the American people have a right to expect that our justice system is doing everything within its power to assure their safety and security.
We also must be clear that assuring greater safety and security has costs.
We, the American People, must pay the taxes that fund our justice system — and serve on the juries that our Constitution demands.
When circumstances arise, having the courage to provide the information and testimony that will hold violent criminals accountable for their actions can be the most costly duty of all.
As Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has repeatedly stressed, the intimidation and murder of witnesses to crime have become serious obstacles to the effective pursuit of justice.
It would be hard to disagree.
The Washington Post reported in January of last year that, since 2004, at least 37 people in Washington, D.C. and Maryland had been killed “for cooperating with law enforcement or out of fear that they might .”
More recently, Mr. Rashaw Scott, a Baltimore man whose 16-month-old son was fatally shot, refused to cooperate with the investigation and had to be compelled to testify at the trial.
These examples illustrate that those who find the courage and wisdom to stand up to violence through their testimony must not be forced to do so alone and unprotected.
As a community and a great nation, we must have the honesty to declare this truth: the intimidation and murder of witnesses to crime are terrorism, just as surely as if these attacks were initiated from abroad — and we must do whatever it takes to bring this violent, home-grown terrorism to an end.
Standing together, I am confident that we can provide witnesses to crime with greater protection from intimidation and retaliation. We cannot allow the justifiable fear of harm to continue to deny justice to the victims of crime and security to us all.
This is why, last month, Senator Ben Cardin and I introduced the Witness Security and Protection Grant Program Act of 2015 .
Our proposed legislation would direct the U.S. Attorney General to award competitive grants to state and local governments for witness protection programs in cases involving homicides, violent felonies, serious drug offenses, gang related crimes or organized crime.
Expanding upon the witness protection programs that states like Maryland have instituted, the federal government would become a stronger partner to the extent of $150 million — $30 million a year for five years.
Securing the safe cooperation of witnesses is now more crucial than ever. As Senator Cardin has declared, “Witnesses want to do the right thing and testify, but they need to know that they and their families are safe from harm.”
Despite the political obstacles that we have faced in advancing more effective witness protection in the past, I remain hopeful that an expanded federal role will be recognized as a central element of bipartisan criminal justice reform this year.
Just as our courage as citizens may be demanded if we witness a violent crime, we who have been elected to serve the public must not allow political fear to stand in the way of doing what protecting our communities requires.
Congressman Elijah Cummings represents Maryland’s 7th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.