Page 20 - FOP September 2016

The report is out...and it’s not good
On Aug. 10 the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its findings related to its in- vestigation into the practices of the Baltimore Police Department. Considering the current negative climate swirling around law enforce- ment, it came with little surprise that the Justice Department found that the Baltimore Police Department committed a pattern of civil rights violations. Principally, the Justice Depart-
nity.
The DOJ took specific issue with the department policy
of zero tolerance street enforcement as well as a general lack of training. Also, it found a lack of accountability exist- ed, which created an atmosphere in which the Constitution and federal discrimination laws were routinely violated. As a result, the report indicated that a federally enforceable consent decree must be created to address the issues un-
covered during the investigation.
The reaction to the DOJ report has been split along
party lines of law enforcement detractors and sup- porters. One such supporter has been notoriously outspoken since the report was issued. Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and author of The War on Cops took partic- ular issue with the demonization of proactive policing by referring to it as “zero-tolerance policing.” She said it was the residents of high-crime areas who have zero tolerance for street disorder. The finding that blacks were stopped at a disproportionate rate as opposed to whites is misleading, according to Mac Donald. It does not account for other rel- evant factors such as the stops occurring in areas with a vastly disproportionate number of criminal victimizations, and rift with open-air drug trafficking terrorizing law-abid-
DANIEL HERBERT
ment found that Baltimore police officers engaged in a pattern or practice of conduct that violated the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, as well as federal anti-discrimination laws.
FOP
Legal Rep t
ing residents.
The DOJ concluded that Baltimore police officers conducted stops, searches and arrests of individu-
als without required lawful justification. Additionally,
it found that the department’s enforcement strategies, in- cluding stops, searches and arrests, occurred at statistical rates that disproportionately affected African Americans. Baltimore police officers used excessive force and retaliat- ed against individuals for exercising expression protected and secured by the Constitution. The DOJ concluded that that such behavior was a direct result of a deficient system that has existed within the BPD for years. This behavior helped to foster a distrust of the police within the commu- nity, and particularly within the African American commu-
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20 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ SEPTEMBER 2016