Victims of Violent Crime
House Subcommittee on Responsiveness and Accountability to Oversight
2025-09-29
Loading video...
Source: Congress.gov
Summary
No summary available.
Participants
Transcript
Subcommittee will come to order. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time. We welcome everybody to today's hearing. Thank you for being here. A number of our colleagues on this committee and from the region have joined us this morning. Without objection, Mr. Klein. Ms. Lee, Mr. Fry, Mr. Knott, Mr. Harris, Mr. Harrigan, Mr. Moore, Mr. Norman, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Rouser, Mr. McDonnell, Mr. Kiley, Ms. Ross, and Ms. Adams will be permitted to participate in today's hearing for the purpose of questioning the witnesses, and they each will receive five minutes for that purpose. I now recognize the gentleman from North Carolina, Brad Knott, to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I will then ask afterward that we all remain standing for a moment of silence.
Good morning again. I want to welcome everyone once again to today's hearing. I want this to be a good and productive hearing. I think there are a number of us who are going to be very candid, including some of the witnesses. Perhaps it's sometimes blunt. I respect my colleagues on the other side greatly. However, I fundamentally disagree in a number of things that happened that have been highlighted by the stories we're going to hear today. I do wish that more members from the other side of the aisle were here. I respect differences of opinion. But I think you have to be there. You have to be in the game. You have to participate. I appreciate both of you for being here very much today. And I know we're going to have a continuing dialogue on that. You know, today we're here in Charlotte, North Carolina. But this committee, and I've been honored, has also been to Philadelphia. We've also been to New York City. We've also worked each and every day in Washington, D.C. And you know, when we went to Philly, We saw progressive DA Larry Krasner allow more than 400 murders to happen that year. And his office dismissed 70%, not 7%, 70% of those crimes. The committee's been in New York City and there we saw DA Alvin Bragg let crime surge while he focused on politicizing his office and on politics. He even tried to throw a bodega clerk in jail that was defending himself from violence. Every time the committee visits a new city when we do these field hearings, which is a good thing to do, the story is the same. The faces may be different, the accents may be different, the city may look different, but the same story we're mourning for innocent lives that have been lost.
hearing from families who've been shattered, have been broken apart, have been destroyed. And there are no words we can say. We were talking on the bus ride here, a few of us. You know, when something like this happens to a daughter or a son, a brother or a sister, a mother or a father, there are no words. There are no words that I can say to some of the people on the panel today that ever make it right. I know that. I never say I know how you feel because I don't know how you feel. I can never know how some of you feel. I pray to God that I don't know how you feel. The latest name we speak of is Irina Zarutska, a young woman with her whole life ahead of her. One who fled an actual war zone to chase the American dream. She wanted to be here so badly.
Sign up for free to see the full transcript
Accounts help us prevent bots from abusing our site. Accounts are free and will allow you to access the full transcript.