Among the findings: Black residents account for roughly 84 percent of stops, though they represent just 63 percent of the city’s population.
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In an interview with Baltimore residents, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times, finds that the report was a testament to the experiences of local African-Americans. And the department has been implicated for unconstitutional strip searches as well.
Vanita Gupta announced the findings of the federal investigation on Wednesday during a news conference in Baltimore.
Anthony Williams, a 27-year-old father raising young children in Sandtown-Winchester, the neighborhood where Gray was arrested, said he was once with his kids and saw officers chasing a teenager for smoking marijuana. Lt. Rice was the fourth officer to stand trial was tried after Judge Williams, who is black, previously acquitted Officers Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson Jr. of all charges.
The United States Department of Justice Report released today outlines systemic civil rights violations practiced by the Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) is a damning indictment of the Department (BPD) in particular and American policing in general.
The Department of Justice monitored the department’s policing methods, including use of force, searches and arrests, for more than year.
“If you look at the details of this report, the report talks about widespread under-staffing of the Baltimore Police Department, the under-utilization, the under-application of resources”, Hosko said. None of the stops resulted in charges.
The BPD also showed a lack of training and awareness when it came to interacting with people who are mentally ill, often responding with excessive violence during interactions that could have been de-escalated or not escalated at all with the correct training.
“They’re supposed to protect and serve, but people are afraid to call them because when they come, they’re hurting people”, she said.
“The high rate of stopping African Americans persists across the City, even in districts where African Americans make up a small share of the population”, said the report, adding that African Americans were also far more likely to be subjected to multiple stops within short periods of time. 410 people were stopped at least 10 times since 2010, and 95 percent of them were African-American. None of the stops resulted in charges. In a 2011 incident, officers drive-stunned a noncompliant, mentally unstable man five to six times, according to the report. When the officer was able to detain the man, he frisked him but found no weapon.
The report also expresses concern that officers are displaying unlawful gender bias in their interactions with female victims of sexual violence and transgender people. Black people accounted for 91 percent of all those charged exclusively with trespassing or failure to obey; 89 percent of people charged for making false statements to an officer; and 84 person of those charged with disorderly conduct. The Baltimore police rarely attempt to de-escalate situations peacefully, and they often rush to violence if suspects are uncooperative (yet non-violent).
The police department is trying to create new organizations rather than build relationships with existing organizations, the study says.
“Change is painful”, Davis said, “but nothing is as painful as being stuck in a place that we do not belong”.
Mr. Davis, who took office after Gray’s death, has pushed some reforms, including a more rigorous use-of-force policy.
“.Policing that violates the Constitution or federal law severely undermines community trust”.
The NAACP recognizes the release of the DOJ report as an opportunity for our communities to address the nationwide crisis in policing and to seek concrete change. “Because they wear this uniform proudly and they serve the citizens of Baltimore honorably each and every day”.
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The DOJ in recent years had launched similar civil rights investigations into police departments in Chicago, Cleveland, Ferguson, etc. His neck was broken and compressed, prosecutors said in court, comparing the spinal injury to those suffered after a dive into a shallow pool.
