The Justice Department and Baltimore police agreed to negotiate court-enforceable reforms after a scathing federal report released Wednesday criticized officers for using excessive force and routinely discriminating against blacks.
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The Department of Justice monitored the department’s policing methods for more than a year after the 2015 death of Gray, who suffered a fatal injury while being transported in a police van.
The Justice Department’s report Wednesday on the Baltimore Police Department is troubling because “one of the more disturbing underlying themes of the report is that there were many indicators of problems in Baltimore”, former Federal Bureau of Investigation assistant director Ron Hosko told Newsmax TV on Wednesday.
Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division, told reporters in Baltimore today that investigators combed through “hundreds of thousands of pages of documents – covering 2010 to 2016 – including policies and training materials, internal affairs files, data on stops, searches, and arrests and use-of-force reports”. “Indeed, one African American man was stopped 30 times in less than four years with none of the stops resulting in a citation or a criminal charge”.
“And some of the more egregious acts described in report, action has been taken, and those police officers have been removed and no longer work for the Baltimore Police Department”, he said.
“Those who choose to wear this uniform and choose to blatantly disregard someone’s rights absolutely should be uncomfortable, because we are not going to tolerate it”, he said.
Police make 520 pedestrian stops for every 1,000 black residents, but only 180 stops for every 1,000 white residents, the report finds. But in two key ways, Baltimore is not like other cities, according to Smith. Due to improper training, Baltimore Police Department officers regularly use excessive force against minors and individuals with mental disabilities. Officers often arrest people who are standing in front of private businesses or public housing projects, the report notes, unless they are able to satisfactorily “justify” their presence there.
Stories like those of Gray, Overbey and Latonya have been out there for quite some time ― but they seemingly never were taken seriously until the Justice Department looked into them.
The federal report also found that Baltimore police interfered with the First Amendment right of its citizens to record police actions by using excessive force or by deleting photos/recordings made of them while on the job. Black residents of Baltimore accounted for 82 percent of all traffic stops, yet they compose only 27 percent of the driving population in the greater metropolitan area.
“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. “Growth is painful. But nothing is as painful as being stuck in a place that we do not belong”.
The Department of Justice has released the findings of its 15-month investigation of the Baltimore Police Department and the results are damning, if not surprising. As recently as last night, and continuing at this moment, our police officers are being ordered to conduct enforcement that runs counter to the suggested reforms mentioned in the DOJ report as well as the Blueprint for Improved Policing. Since 2010, Baltimore prosecutors have even dropped over 10,000 cases due to a lack of probable cause and evidence. No funding for discriminatory policing: Baltimore taxpayers have been paying for a police department that routinely discriminates against its citizens. The DOJ found hope in the dedication of the community and the City of Baltimore to address the serious deficiencies the report exposed. This decree would assign an objective, third-party team to oversee the implementation of the necessary changes throughout the police department.
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The Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, the city’s local police union, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
