Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Delivers Remarks on Combating Violent Crime

Remarks as Delivered

Good morning everyone. The Deputy Attorney General and I are joined today by leaders from each of the Justice Department’s law enforcement components — the FBI, ATF, DEA U.S. Marshals — as well as leaders of other Department components.

I have convened this group to discuss two areas of continuing concern to the Department:

First, combating violent crime; and second, prosecuting and deterring those who would criminally threaten public servants, including law enforcement personnel, members of Congress, judges, and election workers.

First, with respect to violent crime.

We know that hard fought progress can easily slip away, and we must remain focused and vigilant. That said, we are encouraged by the data we are seeing indicating a decline in homicides.

The FBI has reported that the number of homicides fell over 6% nationally between 2021 and 2022.

And the Major Cities Chiefs Association has reported a double-digit decrease in the number of murders across 69 major cities through September 2023, as compared to the same time period during 2022.

This is not a time to relax our efforts. We have so much more to do.

In May 2021, we launched our violent crime reduction strategy aimed at addressing the spike in violent crime that occurred during the pandemic.

Central to that strategy has been the importance of our partnerships: partnerships among federal law enforcement agencies who are assisting in the fight against violent crime; partnerships with the state and local law enforcement agencies tasked with protecting their local communities; and partnerships with the local communities themselves.

As part of that strategy, we have been bringing to bear our technological tools — including advanced ballistics analysis, firearms tracing, crime gun intelligence centers, and local fusion cells — to support joint law enforcement investigations to identify the principal sources of violent crime in specific local communities.

We have also been bringing to bear our federal statutes and prosecutorial tools to arrest and convict the repeat offenders and criminal organizations that are the principal drivers of violent crime.

In addition, we are making good use of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022, known as BSCA, which expanded our authority to prosecute firearms traffickers and straw purchasers who buy guns for those barred by the law from possessing them. We have already charged over 300 defendants under that authority.

And we are continuing to implement the enhanced background check requirements of BSCA for purchasers under the age of 21.

Today, we are announcing that in the 19 months since the Act’s passage, those checks have already kept 527 firearms out of the hands of young people who are prohibited from having them.

We have also been utilizing our grantmaking authorities to support the local anti-violence initiatives being led by both our law enforcement and our community partners.

In this regard, we have focused on strengthening Project Safe Neighborhoods, which puts community partnerships, community trust, and violence prevention at the center of anti-violent crime efforts.

We are also funding community violence intervention initiatives that we know save lives.

In light of the encouraging results we have seen in many parts of the country in 2022 and 2023, we are meeting today to build on those efforts.

We will evaluate which local initiatives are working, how we can reinforce them, and how we can replicate those successful initiatives in places that have not yet seen the same improvements.

One such place is Washington, D.C., and we will be sharing more about our additional efforts here very soon.

As I said at the outset, we have so much more work to do.

Violent crime is not just a threat to people’s physical safety. It is a threat to their ability to freely go about their daily lives.

Violent crime isolates people and their communities. It deepens the fractures in our public life.

And when it is not addressed, it can undermine people’s trust in the government and in each other.

This Department, and our state and local partners, will not rest until every community in our country is safe from the scourge of violent crime.

At the same time that we are seeing an encouraging downward trend in violent crime, we are also witnessing a deeply disturbing spike in threats against those who serve the public.

In just the final months of 2023, the Department investigated and charged individuals with making violent threats against FBI agents, federal judges, including a Supreme Court Justice, presidential candidates, members of Congress, members of the military, and election workers.

Just this week, several bomb threats were made against courthouses across the country. 

The U.S. Marshals Service, FBI, and our state and local partners are aggressively investigating those bomb threats, which constitute serious offenses.

And just yesterday, we arrested and charged an individual with threatening to kill a member of Congress and his children.

This is just a small snapshot of a larger trend that has included threats of violence against those who administer our elections, ensure our safe travel, teach our children, report the news, represent their constituents, and keep our communities safe.

These threats of violence are unacceptable.

They threaten the fabric of our democracy.

Over the past several years, the Justice Department has dedicated itself to combating these threats. 

We are meeting today to determine how we can double down on those efforts in the new year.

Before beginning our meeting, I want to take a moment to recognize that tomorrow marks the third anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

For our country, January 6 was an unprecedented attack on the cornerstone of our system of government — the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next.

For many of the law enforcement officers defending the Capitol on that day, January 6 was also dangerous, painful, and personal.

On that day, officers were punched, tackled, and tased as they defended the Capitol and those inside. One officer was crushed in a door, and another was dragged down a flight of stairs.

Officers were attacked with chemical agents that burned their eyes and skin.

They were assaulted with pipes, poles, and other dangerous and deadly weapons.

Over the course of several hours, law enforcement officers defending the Capitol sustained a barrage of repeated, violent attacks.

140 officers were assaulted.

We honor the officers who selflessly defended members of Congress and others inside the Capitol that day.

Our efforts are with the loved ones who are grieving for the five officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty as a result of what happened to them on January 6.

We must never forget the terrible violence inflicted on law enforcement officers on January 6.

Since the January 6 attack, the Justice Department has engaged in what has become one of the largest and most complex and resource-intensive investigations in our history.

We have initiated prosecutions and secured convictions across a wide range of criminal conduct on January 6, as well as in the days and weeks leading up to the attack. 

We have secured convictions of those who brutally assaulted officers at the Capitol.

We have secured convictions against those who obstructed the certification of the presidential election.

We have secured convictions of leaders of both the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers for seditious conspiracy.

So far, we have charged over 1250 individuals and obtained over 890 convictions in connection with the January 6 attack.

Our work continues.

As I said before, the Justice Department will hold all January 6 perpetrators, at any level, accountable under the law — whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy.

In the ongoing January 6 investigations and prosecutions led by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matt Graves and Special Counsel Jack Smith, the Justice Department is abiding by the long-standing norms that ensure our independence and the integrity of our investigations.

We are following the facts and the law, wherever they lead. 

We are enforcing the law, without fear or favor.

We are honoring our obligation to protect the civil rights and civil liberties of everyone in our country.

We are upholding the rule of law.

And we are protecting the American people.

With that, I would like to turn over the meeting to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco to share any words she may have.