One man in his fifties was “stopped 30 times in less than four years, none of the stops resulted in a citation or criminal charge”. Since President Barack Obama took office, more than two dozen local police departments have undergone DOJ civil rights investigations.
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The report, the culmination of a yearlong investigation into one of the country’s largest police forces, found that officers make a large number of stops – mostly in poor, black neighborhoods – with dubious justification and unlawfully arrest citizens when officers “did not like what those individuals said”.
According to the report officers expressed “open contempt” for victims and disbelieved women when they came in to report crimes.
“They want to take you to the side and look up in your privates”, he said.
And the culture seemed to extend to prosecutors, investigators found.
The investigative report did not directly reference the actions of officers in the Gray case. “Lmao! I feel the same”.
He added that some officers who had been called out in the Department of Justice report for unconstitutional behavior had already been relieved of their duties. The agency fails to provide officers with sufficient policy guidance and training; fails to collect and analyze data regarding officers’ activities; and fails to hold officers accountable for misconduct.
In Missoula, where the department also investigated a campus of the University of Montana, the inquiries focused specifically on gender and also examined the actions of prosecutors. Do you think the findings of this report are applicable to the average American police department?
The attorney who represented the family of Freddie Gray said the Department of Justice report on the Baltimore Police Department missed certain details. “They will say something derogatory when they leave”.
“It’s so very important we get this right”, the mayor said at the joint press conference.
There are many more stories: Police retaliating against residents who ask questions or make complaints, a man in handcuffs being tased five to six times, an officer kicking a man who was handcuffed and following commands, a juvenile and his sister arrested for “loitering” on the steps of their own house, arrests for people “just talking” outside, officers cursing at and threatening citizens, citizens arrested for cursing at officers.
Rosalyn Kelly, 54, said she was once chased and choked by a police officer in West Baltimore, where she was born and raised.
We can not afford to do what I have seen in too many parts of the country, where people just, you know, retrench to their corners, right, and just shout and they’re angry and they’re frustrated. This report comes months after protests and riots broke out in the city concerning the fatal injury of Freddie Gray while in police custody.
DOJ investigators said they “reviewed many incidents in which BPD officers believe they are justified in using force or arresting a person based exclusively on profane or insulting words”.
“Nearly everyone who spoke to us – from the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police, who showed us their 2012 report, ‘Blueprint for Improved Policing, ‘ to the residents who shared serious concerns – agreed that the Baltimore Police Department needs sustainable reform”, Gupta said. Officials say there have been longstanding systemic problems with the Baltimore Police Department, including excessive force and the targeting of African-Americans. She said officials also are engaged in “active discussion” about giving residents a role in determining how officers are punished – a central demand of civil-rights activists.
One woman reported a rape by a taxi driver, but the department never tried to test the suspect’s DNA. It’s a pervasive attitude not only on the parts of police, but also on the part of the community. Neither of these victims were named in the Justice Department report.
Davis vowed zero tolerance for cops who “choose to engage in racist, sexist, discriminatory or biased-based policing”. At least 15 of those stops, he said, were to check for outstanding warrants.
The same day the governor lifted the state of emergency in Baltimore after unrest over Gray’s death, Rawlings-Blake requested the investigation from the Justice Department.
VANITA GUPTA, U.S. Department of Justice: These violations have deeply eroded the trust between BPD and the community it serves, trust that is essential to effective policing, as well as to officer and public safety.
The problems detailed in the 163-page report are broad and deep.
The sergeant wrote, “I used to say at roll call in NE when I ran the shift: Do not treat criminals like citizens”.
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“They’re mean and nasty, they don’t know how to talk to people”. And I really don’t care.
