Skip to main content

Quigley Fights to Put More Police on the Streets

July 18, 2013

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) advocated for increased funding for Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) hiring grants within the FY14 Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Act. COPS hiring grants provide federal funds to allow cities to put more police officers on the streets and are vital to Chicago's efforts to fight the city's growing epidemic of gun violence.

"If you live in my city, you aren't safer because of all the troops we have in Eastern Europe. I think we should trade the men and women in uniform there for men and women in police uniforms and put them in dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago," said Rep. Quigley during consideration of the legislation. "We're funding the Cold War, which is non-existent, and we're not funding the Hot War, which is existing and taking place every day, not in some distant land, but a short walk from everyone's house in the City of Chicago and cities across the country."

To watch Rep. Quigley's statement from the Appropriations Committee, please click here. A full transcript is included below.

Rep. Quigley believes gun violence in Chicago demands federal action and has called on Congress to stand up to the gun lobby in America. He is the author of the TRACE Act, which cracks down on the illegal gun market by improving gun tracking data, and is an original sponsor of the Buyback our Safety Act to bolster gun buyback initiatives.

TRANSCRIPT

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, it's beyond a five year program because crime has gone beyond five years. If you live in the City of Chicago we lost five hundred people last year in the war on crime. Over the Fourth of July weekend this year seventy people were shot, eleven were killed.

What's extraordinary here, we have scarce resources, is you have to use that money very, very wisely. Well, what makes us safe? How are we really threatened? If you live in my city, you aren't safer because of all the troops we have in Eastern Europe. I think we should trade the men and women in uniform there for men and women in police uniforms and put them in dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago.

We're funding the Cold War, which is non-existent and we're not funding the Hot War which is existing and taking place every day not in some distant land, but a short walk from everyone's house in the City of Chicago and cities across the country. We continue to spend billions on nuclear weapons, which we will never ever use, some of our best generals tell us have no military value at all, instead of putting men and women in police uniforms so that boys and girls can go to and from their homes and to and from school safely.

If this is about being practical and using common sense resources in the most practical way, we are doing this the wrong way. So I support this amendment.

House_Seal