Sessions starts unwind of Fed takeover of local police

[Manonthestreet]

The threat will remain unless Congress acts to change a law that enables it but this is step in right direction. Besides being detrimental to our freedoms it also seems to make things worse instead of improving them by making recruiting harder which is exacerbated by officer retirements or transfers who dont want to be part of a DEPT under the FED microscope. See Baltimore.

Sessions begins the process of ending war on police - NetRight Daily
Since 2009, the Civil Rights Division has opened 23 investigations into police departments.”

Since Gupta testified, additional agreements were reached with Miami, Newark, Ferguson, and Chicago.

But now, those agreements could be in question under Sessions, who in his directive noted, “Local control and local accountability are necessary for effective local policing. It is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies.”

 

[SavannahMann]

Actually this is not good news. Not at all. What those departmental investigations are for is policies and practices that are unconstitutional. In other words, the police are violating the civil rights of the citizens.

Here is a breakdown of a few, a very few, of those investigations and results.

Investigating Cleveland police: What the Justice Department uncovered in police departments across the U.S.

Unless the departments lie to the investigators, nobody goes to jail over them. What does happen is that the police departments are required to change the unconstitutional practices. In other words, the result of the investigation is to require the police to act in accordance with the law.

By getting rid of the department wide investigations you end up with a much worse scenario. Let me explain why since you seem to think that this is a bad thing.

Now instead of investigating the practices of the department, the DOJ will be required to investigate each case, individually where allegations of misconduct are alleged. Those investigations usually result in the cop being charged for a crime, and the cop going to jail. Now, the department with the unconstitutional practices doesn't change anything, so the next cop who follows the bad practice in the books, also commits a crime, and also risks jail.

But it also gets worse for the police themselves. Now, the community knows that there is no hope of ending the abuses, so if you can't get justice from the Justice Department, you have to resist the police on the streets. This means it gets more dangerous for the cops, not less. It means more people will see the police as corrupt, and figure if they risk jail, they might as well resist with maximum violence.

In other words, it gets more dangerous to be a cop, not less. One of the things that settled things down in Ferguson was the announcement that the DOJ would investigate. People believed that the DOJ would find the truth. Darren Wilson was exonerated, much to the joy of the cop lovers, but the department was found to be acting in unconstitutional ways.

Now, no such announcement will be forthcoming, so why should the people believe that the corrupt local cops will be held accountable?

It will lead to more riots, more injured cops, and more dead cops. Of course, people will blame the war on police mentality, but Sessions has just declared that the departments are untouchable by the DOJ, and any department wide corruption is not a problem as far as the DOJ is concerned.

 

[MikeK]

This development is directly attributable to the Thin Blue Line, the us vs them orientation which effectively disconnects the police from the public mainstream, isolating and equipping them with an unwritten policy that a cop must always justify and defend the actions of another cop regardless of how egregiously wrong those actions may be. The Thin Blue Line imposes an unspoken conspiracy of silence as rigid as the Mafia's code of "omerta" which forbids testifying against ("ratting" on) a fraternal brother regardless of any circumstances. The nature and effect of this Thin Blue Line is clearly revealed in the books and movies, Serpico and Prince of The City.

Because all police supervisory personnel are former patrol-level cops the essence of the Thin Blue Line extends into the upper ranks in varying degrees of complicity, often manifesting in an immediate supervisor's risking serious administrative (or criminal) consequences to conceal the misconduct of a subordinate.

The inevitable effect of this policy of sanctified rule-breaking is that of good cops acquiring the habits of bad cops on such a scale that eventually attracts the attention of the federal government.

 

[Manonthestreet]

Local law enforcement means local....you think the FEDs enrolling these Depts is simply to improve the situation you have rocks in your heads.

 

[MikeK]

Local law enforcement means local....you think the FEDs enrolling these Depts is simply to improve the situation you have rocks in your heads.

What do you mean by "enrolling?"

If the Federal Government has cause to believe that civil police, whether state or local, are performing in a manner which ignores Constitutional boundaries it has the power to impose guidelines which either will be adhered to or the offending agency would be placed under federal supervision -- in addition to losing any regular law-enforcement budgetary subsidies.