Baltimore police officers routinely discriminate against blacks, repeatedly use excessive force and are not adequately held accountable for misconduct, according to a harshly critical Justice Department report being presented Wednesday.
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Baltimore citizens will have a chance to voice their opinions about the potential reforms before they are submitted for court approval, officials said.
“Those who choose to wear this uniform and choose to blatantly disregard someone’s rights absolutely should be uncomfortable”, he said, “because we are not going to tolerate it”.
The mayor said it could cost the city $5 million to $10 million annually to make the suggested changes, which include improved training and new technology and equipment to modernize the police force. Department of Justice officials were in the vehicle for a ride along while those statements were made.
“If we find… that you are violating the basic human rights of people in this city, we, as the government, will not give you taxpayer money to do that”, Stahly-Butts said.
“Nearly everyone who spoke to us … agreed the Baltimore Police Department needs sustainable reform”, Gupta said. “I don’t do drugs”, he said.
Rawlings-Blake said the report was “challenging to hear” and that the city faced a “long journey ahead” in fixing the problems.
Among other outrages, the feds found that between 2010 and June 2015, 44 percent of BPD stops were made in two African American communities containing just 11 percent of the city’s population. Before the death of Freddie Gray, I was in a very lonely fight in Annapolis, our state capital, to get reforms, to fight for reforms to the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights, something many people in the community felt was a barrier to the trust relationships that they believed were necessary for progress.
“The unconfirmed comments made in an email about a sexual assault victim, in the recently released Department of Justice investigation into the Baltimore Police Department, were not brought to our attention prior to this report being released”. But, without the commitment of law enforcement, the City Council, and the Mayor’s office to a fundamental overhaul of the department and current accountability structures, the findings will not translate to meaningful change in the everyday lives of Baltimore’s residents.
“BPD teaches officers to use aggressive tactics”, the report said. “The transparency of the report offers crucial a crucial foundation if we are going to move forward”, said the mayor, who spearheaded the unsuccessful prosecution of the officers involved in gray’s fatal detainment. In one instance, officers stopped a black man for crossing the street in a high-crime area while wearing a hoodie. Cleveland and Ferguson, Missouri, are now under consent decrees after DOJ investigations in those cities too. “Indeed, one African-American man was stopped 30 times in less than four years – with none of the stops resulting in a citation or criminal charge”.
In an interview with the Sun on Wednesday, Davis stressed his belief that although the Justice Department’s findings that mistreatment of citizens was routine within his department, most officers are hard-working and honest and treat people with respect.
“Change is painful”, Davis said, “but nothing is as painful as being stuck in a place that we do not belong”.
But the bulk of the examples are actions against individual Baltimore residents – racial discrimination, excessive force, unjustified stops, unlawful restrictions on speech, retaliation against critics, unreasonable force against juveniles and the mentally ill, bias against women reporting sexual assault. When the officer protested he had no reason to stop them, the sergeant replied, “Then make something up”.
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“They’re supposed to protect and serve, but people are afraid to call them because when they come, they’re hurting people”, she said.
