Today, U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar went ahead and approved the Baltimore consent decree, adopting the reforms despite Sessions’ protests.
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“Baltimore can not flourish without effective and lawful policing, and this consent decree represents the first step towards that reality”, Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund said in a statement.
Sessions says in a statement that the agreement was “negotiated during a rushed process” by the Obama-era Justice officials and says the reforms it calls for are “ill-advised” given Baltimore’s rising violence.
“The Attorney General’s attempts to re-litigate or eliminate policing reforms created to address systemic misconduct represents a morally bankrupt step that could have disastrous results regarding the protection of Black lives”, said NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks.
Scores of Baltimore residents have taken their seats in a federal courtroom in Baltimore for the first public comment hearing on a proposed agreement to overhaul the city’s police department.
The U.S. attorney general is not pleased that the police department of the Atlantic coast city of Baltimore, Maryland, has chose to adhere to an agreement negotiated with the Obama administration.
Bredar denied the request as “untimely”, writing that granting such a delay “at the eleventh hour would be to unduly burden and inconvenience the Court, the other parties, and, most importantly, the public”.
A USA judge approved an agreement Friday to overhaul the troubled Baltimore Police Department, dealing a blow to the Trump administration that expressed “grave concerns” about the plan. At the time Baltimore’s agreement was inked, the Justice Department was enforcing 15 such consent decrees. Dixon said attempts by the Baltimore Police Department to reform itself have been unsuccessful, and have done little to reduce excessive force and racial profiling by officers. Multiple mothers whose sons were killed by police testified about their pain. To accommodate the throngs of people, other judges cleared their dockets for the day, and the hearing was widely advertised, the judge said.
The DOJ’s existing consent decree with Baltimore’s law enforcement calls for changes including training for officers on how to resolve conflicts without using force. I welcome this consent decree because it is a step in a positive direction.
The Justice Department opened an investigation into the Baltimore Police Department in 2014 after the Baltimore Sun revealed that the city had paid out millions in more than 100 civil suits alleging police misconduct and brutality. We are not scapegoating police officers for our city’s problems.
But Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he has “grave concerns” about this particular agreement.
Hundreds of Baltimore residents are expected to show up to offer commentary, critiques and recommendations regarding a proposed agreement to overhaul the city’s troubled police force.
The Justice Department undertook a review of policing practices in Baltimore after the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, who died from injuries to his neck and spine after he was arrested and placed in the back of a police van. One Trump nugget is to proclaim, “the individual misdeeds of bad actors should not impugn” the work police officers perform “in keeping American communities safe”.
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Many of us continue to understand the role of the police.
