mr. chairman , i am a cop . 
i wear a congressional pin , but i always will live and breathe and think like a cop . 
i have worked the streets for 33 years . 
up until january 3 of this year i was a police officer . 
in the early 1990s , gangs were a huge problem in this country ; and we worked hard and passed local tough laws to address the gang issue . 
and we had success . 
the crackdown by cops across the nation in the early 1990s did break the backs of gang activity . 
and today we need tough laws to continue fighting gang violence and the resurgence of gang activity . 
these gangs today are more violent . 
they are committing murders , rapes , and robberies . 
cops need tough laws to help them . 
they need to know that local governments , state governments , and the federal government is behind them with tough laws to help them break the backs of gangs . 
a few years ago i lost a good friend , an officer who worked in the seattle area . 
he stopped his police car , opened his car door , stood by the front of his police car , and was approached by three gang members . 
the job that night , the assignment that night by these gang bangers , kill a cop . 
and they did . 
they fired the bullet into the cop 's head , and he died . 
mr. chairman , i urge my colleagues to pass this bill and protect the lives of citizens of this great country . 
mr. chairman , i am a cop . 
i wear a congressional pin , but i will always think like a cop , live and breathe as a cop . 
i have chased these gangs , i have worked to shut down these groups and these were not innocent children . 
i absolutely believe in protecting our children and giving them a chance , teaching them right from wrong and allowing them to make mistakes . 
i believe in doing that while they are young . 
we should be educating our children , teaching them responsibility and raising them to be better men and women than we are . 
but i believe once that foundation has been laid , they are responsible for their actions . 
it is a harsh world and i have seen it first hand . 
i have watched young women turn to prostitution . 
i have picked them up from their beats and taken them to shelters and tried to help them find a way out of that life . 
i 've had success too . 
but ultimately , they are responsible for themselves and their choices . 
i am a compassionate man , but i firmly believe that respect stems from responsibility . 
and no one -- not you , me , not any of these youths in gangs are without responsibility . 
the members of these gangs consciously choose to act out against their communities . 
they dispense the violence ; no one forces them to do so . 
that type of influence is like a cancer . 
these gangs seep into young men and women and corrupt them . 
they erode the good of our neighborhoods and destroy lives . 
our communities need to be safe . 
in order to be safe , we need to stop this cycle before it begins . 
mandatory minimums enforce that gang members and their theft , prostitution , weapons and drugs will not be tolerated . 
they will be dealt with to the fullest extend of the law . 
in may of 2001 , des moines patrol officer steve underwood was shot to death and killed after approaching a car with four gang members on a late-night watch along pacific highway south . 
shot to death simply in approaching the car , this is what we have progressed to . 
last night i spoke with king county 's gang detective , sheila hatch . 
in the course of our conversation , she raised mandatory minimums . 
she said that the only way for our prosecutors to effectively go after gang leaders when the cops manage to bring them down is with a strong penalty . 
our laws need to be effective to stop and make them think of consequence before they commit a crime . 
the cost of their crime sprees should not be simply an afterthought . 
mr. chairman , we need mandatory minimums . 
i am telling you that first hand , as someone who worked on the streets to stop gangs . 
i urge my colleagues to vote `` no '' against the waters-scott amendment . 
