JD Vance Honors Fallen Police Officers At National Peace Officers' Memorial Service

Forbes Breaking News

Vice President JD Vance delivers remarks at the National Peace Officers' Memorial Service in Washington, D.C.

Transcript

00:00State's J.D. Vance. Thank you. Thank you all, please. I know it's a I know it's a warm day in

00:22Washington, but we could have got a lot worse weather in midday in Washington, D.C., so we're

00:27honored to have you. We're honored. I'm honored personally to be able to join you

00:31today, and I know from the entire Trump administration, the president who we

00:35heard earlier is overseas to this great team behind us. We are proud to stand

00:41behind the men and women and blue, and we will keep on doing it every day for the

00:45next three and a half years. God bless you now. I want to express my gratitude to

00:54all of the services organizers, including, of course, the president of the Fraternal

00:59Order of Police, Patrick Yost, and its executive director, Jim Pascoe. Thank you,

01:05guys. I want to thank Glenda Lehman, president of the National F.O.P. Auxiliary

01:14Board. Thank you, Linda. And the work that you all do, that everyone here does to

01:19advocate on behalf of men and women in blue around our country is vital. You

01:25fight for law enforcement officers and their families. You help foster warm

01:31relations between the communities that law enforcement serves and the police

01:36officers who wear the badge. And most importantly, you make sure our great

01:41officers get the dignity and respect they deserve, including from people in

01:46power. You hold the people in this building account to account, and you make

01:51sure they stand up for the men and women in blue. Thank you.

01:59Now, one of our administration's greatest goals is to give the American people a

02:05renewed sense of ownership over their own country. Ownership over their homes, over

02:12their neighborhoods, and over their city streets. But none of that would be possible if we don't

02:18have a functional system of law or the means to enforce it. Law is the root of ordered liberty in the

02:26United States. It is the foundation of a peaceful society. A nation of laws gives

02:33certainty to its citizens. It enables them to participate in civic life, to work and raise

02:40families to build a business, all with the assurance that they have a consistent and dependable legal

02:47system that will keep them safe as they work every day to realize their dreams.

02:53But a society that fails to enforce its own rules, or that chooses to do so haphazardly,

03:00can make no such promises to its people. And over the last few years, too many Americans saw

03:07exactly what that looks like. City blocks in flames, storefront windows shattered. Countless citizens

03:15made victims to random crime and mob violence. In America, we honor the men and women who recognize

03:25the value of a peaceful, orderly society, and who have chosen to devote their lives to preserving,

03:32as the president said, that fragile barrier between civilization and chaos. And today, of course,

03:40we mourn those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of that duty.

03:47These men and women chose their careers not for enrichment or self-exaltation, and as you all know,

03:53not because it pays better than every job on earth, but for the unshakable belief that we have a

03:59civilization that is worth defending. They woke up each and every morning. They put on their uniforms,

04:06they said goodbye to their loved ones, and they stepped into the unknown. They ran toward danger

04:13when others would flee. They didn't hesitate. They didn't waver. They stood tall when others could not.

04:21Those officers upheld the rule of law. They fought for that line between civilization and chaos so that freedom

04:31could remain more than a promise. It could be the reality of day-to-day life in this country, the

04:37foundation of our prosperity and the foundation of American greatness. And we gather today, all of us,

04:44in debt to these fallen officers united in grief and united in gratitude. We mourn their sacrifice,

04:53their heroism, their courage and compulsion to protect, which extended well beyond their loved ones

05:01and across the entire communities they served. But above all today, we mourn the actual officers,

05:08the individual men and women who have been taken from us far too soon. We mourn officers like David Lee,

05:18an 18-year veteran of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Last September, Officer Lee was

05:25responding to a single-car crash on Interstate 70, a highway I've driven a number of times, as he was

05:32retrieving traffic cones from his own vehicle. An illegal immigrant, speeding and under the influence

05:38of alcohol, lost control of his car and struck Officer Lee. He was critically injured and passed away

05:46during surgery. He died as he lived, serving others tirelessly without fail and left behind a grieving wife

05:56and two beautiful children. We mourn officers like Fernando Escada, a deputy sheriff who had served the

06:04Houston area with the Harris County Sheriff's Office for five years. Now, after his department launched a

06:10manhunt against a suspect thought to have violently assaulted a nearby clerk, Deputy Escada sprang into action.

06:19His fellow detectives were able to narrow down an area of interest for the suspect's getaway vehicle,

06:24but unable to find the car, they ended up dropping the search. Yet Deputy Escada returned to the spot and was

06:32able to make a positive ID on the vehicle. As he reported the news to his fellow deputies, he was killed

06:39in a cowardly ambush attack. Deputy Escada was 28 years old, his life unfairly taken in his prime,

06:49but his funeral last July, as so many of you know, brought over a thousand community members to honor

06:55and respect that great fallen hero. And finally, we mourn officers like Hamilton County Special Deputy

07:04Sheriff Larry Henderson. Now, I realize this case occurred not in 2024, but more recently, not even two

07:11weeks ago, in fact, but the story hits especially close to home because I am, of course, a person who

07:17calls Cincinnati my home. Deputy Henderson was an exemplary public servant to Southwestern Ohio,

07:23the part of the country that made me who I am. He dedicated 33 years of his life to protecting the

07:29people of Hamilton County, Ohio. But even after having retired recently from the force, Deputy Henderson

07:37continued to step up and serve his community. While directing traffic near the University of Cincinnati

07:43during a commencement event, he was attacked and killed by a man he'd never even met. A man who

07:50we now know targeted Deputy Henderson simply because he was an officer of the law. Deputy Henderson

07:58devoted his career to protecting the lives of complete strangers, only to have a complete stranger take his

08:05own. And it's a story all of you know too well and happens too often in our country. Now, that case is now

08:13in the courts where I pray his family gets the swift justice that it deserves. But all of us here today

08:20pray for Deputy Henderson, Deputy Escada, for Officer Lee, and for the many other peace officers we recognize and honor

08:29here today. Their sacrifice was not in vain, but in the furtherance of the most noble ideals and most critical

08:38mission of our nation. They laid down their lives to defend safe homes, peaceful neighborhoods, and the quiet

08:46order that gives structure and decency to our great American society. And today we pray as well for the

08:54families, the friends and the other loved ones of every one of these officers mourning even today people who

09:02were taken from us far too soon. Behind each of those officers badges was a beating heart, a family waiting to

09:11hear how the day went, a home left emptier and quieter and sadder than it should be. And I want to speak directly

09:20to all of those personally mourning here today. Your loss is our nation's loss. Your grief is our grief.

09:32Your heartbreak is our heartbreak. You all feel their absence with a depth and level of pain, of course,

09:38that I can't possibly begin to comprehend. But I'm here today to tell you that our administration,

09:45and I believe the whole of the American community stands with you, both as fellow citizens, but also as

09:53beneficiaries of the ultimate sacrifice laid down by your loved ones. We love you and we're grateful to you.

10:01Their names will never be forgotten, nor will their heroic act of service which inspire

10:07our nation and fill us with great purpose. I hope you know how deeply our administration from President

10:16Trump on down care about them and care about you. Backing our nation's fallen officers as well as their

10:24families has been a consistent priority the President's whole life from when he was a real estate

10:30developer in New York to now when he's the President of the United States. The President and all of us,

10:36we love you, we care about you, and we will do everything in our power to help you.

10:42It's why last month he took executive action to defend our nation's law enforcement officers,

10:48including by creating strong new legal protections and directing federal resources to improve training

10:55and pay. It's why our great Attorney General here, the Department of Justice, is working even today

11:02with punishing state and local jurisdictions that restrict our peace officers' ability to do their

11:09jobs, and with pursuing the death penalty for criminals who murder our cops.

11:23And finally, it's why the President cares so deeply about the crisis we inherited at the border,

11:31about stopping the violent criminals, the cartels, and the culture of lawlessness that were allowed to

11:38pervade our nation for far too many years. And while we're talking about policy, I want to be clear about one

11:45last thing. The Trump administration has zero tolerance for anyone who threatens to defund, abolish,

11:55or otherwise diminish our law enforcement heroes.

12:07And I know that none of us here like crime, but last year in November, I think the American people

12:16killed the Defund the Police movement, and they used Donald J. Trump as the murder weapon. It is gone from

12:22this country, and we're never going to let it come back.

12:32And just as President Trump and the administration are filled with strong leaders, we have no tolerance

12:38for weak-willed municipal leaders who allow petty crime to take root all over our communities. We have

12:45no tolerance for people who defy our immigration laws or surrender entire blocks of their own cities

12:52to Antifa and other ridiculous organizations. And perhaps worst of them all, we have no tolerance

12:59for far-left prosecutors boosted in their elections by faraway billionaires who come into office and

13:06simply decline to take action against criminals. We are going to fight against crime, we're going to

13:11fight against criminals, and we're going to empower all of you to do your jobs every single day.

13:22We are going to fight against crime, and we're going to fight against crime, and we're going to fight against crime.

13:26Over the past four years, too much of our country was subjected to a giant,

13:31radical experiment about what happens when you stop enforcing the law. And that's our peace officers,

13:37it's all of you, it's your families, and our sacred fallen loved ones who bore the brunt of it. But that ended

13:44on January the 20th, 2025. This administration will never disparage or degrade our police officers,

13:53and particularly not the memory of those who died defending our society. That is our promise,

13:59our sacred obligation to never forget. To never allow the sacrifice of our fallen officers to be met

14:07with silence, or allow their courage to be met with indifference. Because what our fallen heroes gave us

14:14was not just safety, it was stability, dignity, the freedom to live our lives knowing we were safe,

14:21knowing that somebody was watching out for us and for our children. And while these officers watch has

14:27ended, the responsibility they carried now falls on all of us. We honor them, not only in eulogy,

14:37not just with words, but in action. And how we raise our children, how we stand up for our communities,

14:44and how fiercely we defend the values that they died fighting for. To the next generation,

14:52let the example of these fallen heroes be a lesson that freedom is not inherited, it is upheld. And that a

14:59civilization's peace is not inevitable, it is earned and it is kept by those who are willing to protect it.

15:08May God bless the law enforcement officers who gave their lives for their nation and the values

15:14we hold dear. May God provide comfort and grace to those of us left grieving in their absence. And may

15:22continue to bless all of us, those in blue and all Americans across our country. And let us continually

15:31be true to the sacrifice that all of our officers in blue made and continue to make every single day.

15:39Thank you all. God bless America. It's an honor to be with you and I'm glad to be here.

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