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Jeff Sessions’s call to ‘pull back’ on federal probes of police has reignited debate

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T

TalonJH

Member
CHICAGO—Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recent remarks that his Justice Department will “pull back” on federal probes of police departments accused of violating civil rights of minorities reignited a debate over the effectiveness of federal intervention with local law enforcement.

The Obama administration investigated a record 25 law-enforcement agencies, ending in 15 court-enforced agreements, or consent decrees, to make specific changes typically aimed at eliminating excessive force and what the Justice Department alleged was departments’ systemic racial bias. Among the local departments that agreed to improve training and police oversight, and to treat minorities more fairly, were Ferguson, Mo., where the 2014 fatal police shooting of Michael Brown set off nationwide protests, and Cleveland, where 13 officers in 2012 fired 137 shots into a car at the end of a police chase, killing an unarmed black couple inside.

Jonathan Smith, who headed the Justice Department’s civil-rights division special litigation unit from 2010 to 2015, said that the probes under the administration of former President Barack Obama were extremely thorough and showed that there were widespread problems in American policing.
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But some law enforcement and city officials have pushed back against Justice Department involvement in their departments, citing high costs of implementing the changes and an aversion to federal interference in local law enforcement. Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, America’s largest police-labor organization, said some sanctions imposed on police as a result of the agreements “made it far more difficult for police to do their jobs.”
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Officers may become less aggressive in fighting crime immediately after consent decrees—but not in the long term, according to research by Stephen Rushin, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama’s School of Law.

Restrictions imposed on police under federal oversight have contributed to temporary upticks in crime, according to research by Mr. Rushin. “I do not think there is necessarily a trade-off long-term between constitutional policing and crime prevention,” he said. “Our best guess is that the de-policing effect of federal intervention is temporary, until the new policies and procedures become routinized.”

In Chicago and Baltimore, increases in violent crime started just after Justice Department investigations that followed high-profile deaths of black men at the hands of police.

Reforms don’t always last, according to Joshua Chanin, an assistant professor of public affairs at San Diego State University. His 2016 study of five police departments found that allegations of police misconduct as well as officers’ use of force by most measures dropped in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati while those cities were under federal oversight, and for the most part continued a downward trend afterward. Yet police use of force and allegations of police misconduct remained steady in Pittsburgh, then rose after federal overseers left the city, he found. A Pittsburgh police spokeswoman didn’t respond to requests for comment.


There were just three consent decrees under the former Republican President George W. Bush’s administration, as well as three under the administration of President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. Brad Schlozman, who oversaw the special litigation section in Mr. Bush’s Justice Department, said he didn’t believe it was “the federal government’s role to come in in a very heavy-handed fashion and dictate terms” to local police departments. The Bush administration believed that taking a less adversarial and more cooperative approach with police departments would yield better results, he said.
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Mr. Sessions said in his first major speech as attorney general that pulling back on the investigations would “make the lives of people, particularly in poor, minority communities…safer, happier,” and wasn’t “insensitive to civil rights.” He also dismissed the Justice Department’s Jan. 13 finding that Chicago police had a pattern of using excessive force in violation of the constitution as “anecdotal,” not systematic, and hasn’t committed to negotiating a consent decree to implement reforms there.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/sessio...federal-decrees-on-police-1489159495?mod=e2tw

Interested read from the WSJ. I think a lot of people missed the Sessions speech with the heavy news cycles lately. Full story at the link above.
 
S

Saint Gregory

Member
Understandably he's far too busy purjuring himself in front of Congress and covering up his and the Trump Administration's many connections to Russia. Who really has the time to worry about fulfilling their duty to protect the civil rights of minorities in this country with all of that on their shoulders?
 
C

Con_Smith

Banned
Sessions will turn a blind eye to minority issues regarding the police, no if ands or buts and will continue to disregard findings to the contrary.

He also won't all lives drug offences. I promise opioid abusers will not be cracked down on as much as marijuana.
 
S

Slayven

Member
Goodstyle said:
Whoa this was harsh and depressing. The idea that the AG almost certainly feels that way is not something I like acknowledging head on. It's just so sad that Americans would choose this.
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Being brown in America you have to learn that shit at an early age
 
W

Wilsongt

Member
If you're not white and cis-gendered, the government doesn't give a fuck about you.

Such extreme whiplash from Obama to Microhands.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
The Bush administration believed that taking a less adversarial and more cooperative approach with police departments would yield better results, he said.
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No shit, especially since the most effective way at changing local policing is from a local effort. But if the carrot doesn't work, you kind of have to use a stick.

Goodstyle said:
Whoa this was harsh and depressing. The idea that the AG almost certainly feels that way is not something I like acknowledging head on. It's just so sad that Americans would choose this.
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Well, most Americans didn't. And most didn't care about the AG. Which is another way in which the "can't bring myself to vote for Hillary" crowd just doesn't get how government works. You're not just voting in one guy, you're voting in his crowd of assholes, racists and sycophants across the entire executive.

I'm just hopeful long-term this makes liberals realize A) you can't rely on the federal government to tackle all of your problems, and B) people realize that government bureaucracy is important, not just the president.
 
M

metalslimer

Member
So because reforms don't last means the Justice Department shouldn't even try to stop police abuse? What a stupid argument. Police brutality shouldn't be tolerated even if does lead to a spike in crime.

The real question should be how the justice department can improve police departments long term, not fuck niggers police can do what they want.
 
V

Vicetrailia

Member
Fuchsdh said:
No shit, especially since the most effective way at changing local policing is from a local effort. But if the carrot doesn't work, you kind of have to use a stick.



Well, most Americans didn't. And most didn't care about the AG. Which is another way in which the "can't bring myself to vote for Hillary" crowd just doesn't get how government works. You're not just voting in one guy, you're voting in his crowd of assholes, racists and sycophants across the entire executive.

I'm just hopeful long-term this makes liberals realize A) you can't rely on the federal government to tackle all of your problems, and B) people realize that government bureaucracy is important, not just the president.
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In fairness to B, Trump sets the tone.
 
Link

Link

The Autumn Wind
The Fraternal Order of Police is a hate group, as far as I'm concerned. Every statement they make is usually disgusting and extremely transparent.
 
entremet

entremet

Member
Goodstyle said:
Whoa this was harsh and depressing. The idea that the AG almost certainly feels that way is not something I like acknowledging head on. It's just so sad that Americans would choose this.
Click to expand...
He was denied a judge's seat because of his racism.

In the 80s!
 
A

Arkeband

Banned
There was an interesting Intelligence Squared debate on "Policing is Racially Biased" where the For team actually lost, mostly because the audience was already in agreement with their side but also because they really sucked, but it's a decent watch if you're a fan of IQ^2 and is a glimpse into what Sessions and his ilk believe in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TInGHcG-_Q
 
B

BlazinSkatinAxel

Member
Goodstyle said:
Whoa this was harsh and depressing. The idea that the AG almost certainly feels that way is not something I like acknowledging head on. It's just so sad that Americans would choose this.
Click to expand...
So the words are harsh the actions are not? Wut?

There is a reason why Coretta Scott King wrote that letter.
 
formasymphonic

formasymphonic

Member
Trump's administration replacing the White House civil rights web page with that blue lives matter shit, combined with anyone who knows of Session's history - this should sadly not be a surprise in the least.

And I keep beating the drum, but all of this + the private prison deal, the crack down on immigrants and the recents plans for "war on drugs 2017 edition" are all from the playbook laid out by the 13th documentary.
 
P

Protein

Banned
An old, Confederate flag-waving, Klan-supporting attorney general with a strong possibility of colluding with the Russian government. Jeff Sessions is a villain in a Mel Brooks movie.
 
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