We are the in midst of a bipartisan moment as it relates to criminal justice reform and dealing with mass incarceration in America which disproportionately impacts the African-American community.

Another bigger problem is the fact that these incidents of police violence continue to occur because far too often the officers on the force rally around the one who committed the act of violence and, in this particular instance, may have engaged in a cover-up that itself should be prosecuted.

This is not a legitimate congressional exercise. This is not a fact-finding hearing. This is theater. This is a charade. This is stage craft. This is nothing more than a political hit job on a women`s right to choose. Which, by the way, is constitutionally protected.

My job in Congress is to identify projects with federal or some other public component and then to push developers to provide employment opportunities to neighborhood residents.

Decade after decade, the police culture has been just the very opposite. And that`s been to ignore or to rally around. And that`s something that systematically we are going to need to break this blue wall of silence if we`re ever going to dramatically change and end the culture of police violence.

Newark might be one of few the places where the politics is tougher than even Brooklyn.

We are the in midst of a bipartisan moment as it relates to criminal justice reform and dealing with mass incarceration in America which disproportionately impacts the African-American community.