Rep. Matt Gaetz Wondered, 'Is It Too Much to Ask for Criminal Prosecution?'

gentleman yields back chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida Mr Gates yeah I had questions for Mr Ingram but that was a remarkable presentation from Congressman Kylie about how things have gone in California and when I heard that they had to close an in andout and a whole foods that is a broad swath of the constituency in California when you get both of those establishments having to close it's remarkable Mr Ingram so we have this Dynamic now that Mr Kylie just laid out perfectly where you're seeing more and more crimes not really being counted as crimes and you're seeing more and more criminals just being let out and not really deemed part of the criminal justice system for any meaningful period of time and so I want you to bring like the average American who's heard the presentation oh that crime rates are down we're safer now under these policies that don't really punish people for things like theft like what does that what does that actually mean on the streets of America what would you say to an American that encounter that information but it didn't jive with how they felt what I would equate it to is we see it every day in our city where we sit right now it's mindboggling on how we we we talk about crime for us again somebody that has been in Minnesota since 2012 the five years kind of we had one burglary now we've had 12 13 every time I get a thing from our district attorney it says we've reduced the charges to under a, 000 even though it may have cost me 20,000 to repair the building a safe they rolled down three flights of stairs ripped out walls ripped out staircases we reduced it down to under $1,000 and the person is back on the streets and he robs us again and we reduce it down and he robs us again and we reduce it down to me that that is The Madness of it recently our our breakfast restaurant called hope somebody broke into it busted out the garage door went into the space and then we get a letter saying we've reduced the crime down to under $1,000 where the glass on the garage door costs more than that it's it's to me it's when when we have these again this isn't a political thing for me it's it's real life this is real humans these are real businesses we're having businesses closed every single day we're having people murdered we have a drug dealer that provided lace drugs with fentanyl to my partner's son he died he texted him something is wrong he said you'll be fine we had his address that drug dealer to my knowledge is still on the streets to this day Mr Ingram uh vice president Harris filled out a questionnaire for the ACLU when she was running for president back in 2019 and she advocated for the position of decriminalizing fentol making it where that wasn't something where where people would interface with the criminal justice system but would would have a different path um do you think that would make your street safer I I don't believe that will make our street safer people you must be held accountable for your actions words don't really matter actions matter we can all say I can sit here say whatever I want to say any of us can say actions are what matter what is happening every single day is what matter and that's really what we need is common sense to take over if you've been arrested 50 times in 3 years you shouldn't be out to do it again here's what I don't get Mr Ingram why do PE I've never been a prosecutor but why would you want to become a prosecutor to then not prosecute the criminals that that'd be like opening restaurants and not wan to make food that'd be like opening a bar and not wanting to make drinks like do you ever get to talk to some of these folks in your community and say hey like I just sort of assumed that me being the restaurant tour I would run a restaurant and you being the prosecutors you would prosecute the criminals is that too much to ask yeah unfortunately I just get to speak to our First Responders that show up on site and I see the look in their eyes how defeated they are because they've arrested they know them by name we show them the picture and they tell us their name they know where they live and they're so demoralized and defeated it's it's it's insan we we don't live like this in Florida you don't have to live like this Florida's ready when you are as a matter of fact but but I I do worry that these bad ideas that we've seen emerge in some of our Democrat run cities could could spread to other parts of the country and in our last few seconds what would be your warning to a community thinking about adopting these policies that reduce theft thresholds and allow this type of conduct my biggest thing would say love people and love is hard my dad had to discipline me because I made mistakes discipline sucks but it has to happen love people and that includes discipline terrific advice I very much appreciate you being here and I see my time's expired I yeld back