Last month, Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) questioned law enforcement officials on law enforcement innovations during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 I'll ask Mr. Luttrell for five minutes.
00:02 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:03 You know, as we honor the thin blue line of police officers that serve this great country,
00:08 I'm trying to figure out the best way to actually say thank you, where, you know, so the world can understand it.
00:14 You know, in the military, it's Mr. Crane and the chairman, four deployed overseas in a theater of war in the past 20 years when we were fighting in multiple areas.
00:24 You know, they throw on their body armor, they grab the rifle, they go out the wire.
00:28 They do the things they do and they come home.
00:30 They redeploy back to the United States to take the armor off.
00:33 They're able to relax, able to spend time with their families.
00:36 They're able to repatriate and cool down.
00:39 And I think what is lost sometimes is that the men and women that wear the shield wake up every morning.
00:47 They kiss their loved ones goodbye and they walk out that front door with their badge and their weapon system and they deploy out their front door every single day.
00:56 Now, you hear the statistics in the military of the cognitive and the physical struggles of combat and what that does to the human body.
01:03 And those are six months at a time and over a period of 10 to 20 years, you do multiple deployments, five, six, 10, and then you're expected to come back.
01:12 And there's a healing process.
01:13 There's no off-ramp for them, for the law enforcement officers.
01:16 10, 20, 30, 40 years, you deploy out your front door every single day to every single conflict in your area.
01:23 You know, the most astonishing thing that most people don't realize either is every single person, 330 million people in the continental United States have your phone number.
01:30 My seven-year-old son has your phone number.
01:34 And if something goes wrong, he's going to call you and you will respond.
01:38 And I think what has happened is the narrative has changed that in a way that law enforcement has in some way become the bad guys and girls.
01:49 And it breaks my heart to say that.
01:51 And I don't believe that, but it's just something that it kind of resonates in the media and the social media and the platforms that you see and the defunded police.
01:57 And how did this happen?
01:59 Everybody has a bad actor.
02:01 Everybody has a bad day.
02:02 People do stupid things.
02:03 And do you blame the entire establishment for a bad day at the office?
02:09 You know, you see that debated in this committee here today and in Congress and in your local law enforcement agencies.
02:17 But I think we need to take a step back and the American public and understand that there is a thin blue line is something that's very real.
02:23 It's it's those men and women that no matter the circumstances, no matter what you see every day, no matter what you hear, no matter what you feel in your heart.
02:33 You know how amazing it would be if you could take your eyes out of your head and put it in the American public's eyes and your ears and your heart and say, now, see, now you see what I see.
02:41 Now you hear what I hear.
02:43 Now you feel what I feel.
02:45 And I'm coming for you to help you regardless.
02:47 And you may hate me every second of the way, but I'll be there for you.
02:52 And it's it's just tragic in a way that you law enforcement should be the most revered asset in our in our nation because you're there to save our lives.
03:01 You're there to do the things that most people don't want to do.
03:04 You go running in that direction.
03:06 And that's the best way I can say thank you.
03:08 I hope it resonates with you.
03:11 I don't have any questions for you as it gets.
03:14 It'll always get worse before it gets better.
03:17 And the only thing that I ask is you don't leave.
03:19 You don't walk away from us as hard as it gets and the funding goes up and down and people do the things that they do.
03:27 But every time you go home and you see your your loved ones and your kids and you say, I mean, this is the worst day of my entire life.
03:34 Get up the next morning.
03:35 I'm going to do it again.
03:37 Because if you don't. That I don't even know where to go with that, but God bless each and every one of you.
03:43 Thank you. I yield back, sir.