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Baltimore police have racial bias, Justice Department reports - CNN.com
Here is just some of the shit they found. Men lie, Women lie but numbers dont
Unconstitutional stops and arrests
The report blamed "zero tolerance" enforcement practices that emphasized stops, searches and arrests for repeated violations of constitutional rights that eroded the community's trust.
Encouraged by BPD supervisors, "zero tolerance" policing continues in certain neighborhoods, leading to unconstitutional stops, searches and arrests, with little to no suspicion, the report said.
For example:
• About 44% of those stops occurred in two small predominantly African-American neighborhood that contain only 11% of the city's population
• Hundreds of individuals were stopped at least 10 times during this period, and seven were stopped more than 30 times
• Only 3.7% resulted in citations or arrests
• From 2010 to 2015, prosecutors and booking supervisors rejected more than 11,000 charges made by BPD officers because they lacked probable cause or did not merit prosecution
Discrimination against African-Americans
BPD stops African-American drivers and pedestrians at disproportionate rates, subjecting them to greater rates of searches than whites, the report said, creating racial disparities at every stage of law enforcement actions, from stop to arrest, the report said.
"These racial disparities, along with evidence suggesting intentional discrimination, erode the community trust that is critical to effective policing."
Among the investigation's findings:
• African-Americans accounted for 95% of 410 individuals stopped at least 10 times from 2010 to 2016
• One African-American man in his 50s was stopped 30 times in less than four years; none of the stops resulted in a citation or criminal charge
• African-Americans accounted for 82% of all BPD vehicle stops though they make up 60% of the driving age population in the city and 27% percent of the driving age population in the greater metropolitan area
• BPD officers found contraband twice as often when searching white individuals compared to African-Americans during vehicle stops and 50% more often during pedestrian stops
Use of constitutionally excessive force
After reviewing all deadly force cases from January 2010 to May 1, and a random sample of more 800 than nondeadly force cases, the DOJ concluded that BPD engages in a pattern or practice of excessive force. Insufficient training and lack of oversight of those incidents perpetuate the pattern, leading to several recurring issues:
• Use of overly aggressive tactics that escalate encounters and increase tensions and failure to de-escalate encounters when appropriate to do so
• Frequently resorting to physical force when a person does not immediately respond to verbal commands, even if the subject poses no imminent threat to the officer or others
• Due to a lack of training and improper tactics, BPD officers end up in needlessly violent confrontations with people with mental health disabilities
• Failure to use widely accepted tactics for dealing with juveniles, treating them the same way as adults, leading to unnecessary conflict
• Use of excessive force against people already restrained and under officers' control
Retaliation for activities protected by the First Amendment
DOJ investigators found that officers "routinely infringe" upon First Amendment rights in the following ways:
• Unlawfully stopping and arresting people for cursing at officers, even though it's not illegal to use vulgar or offensive language as long as they are not "fighting words"
• Retaliating with excessive force against people in cases of protected speech
• Interfering with people who record police activity, including a time in which officers seized the phone of a man who recorded his friend being arrested and deleted all the videos on his phone, even personal videos of his son
Here is just some of the shit they found. Men lie, Women lie but numbers dont
Unconstitutional stops and arrests
The report blamed "zero tolerance" enforcement practices that emphasized stops, searches and arrests for repeated violations of constitutional rights that eroded the community's trust.
Encouraged by BPD supervisors, "zero tolerance" policing continues in certain neighborhoods, leading to unconstitutional stops, searches and arrests, with little to no suspicion, the report said.
For example:
• About 44% of those stops occurred in two small predominantly African-American neighborhood that contain only 11% of the city's population
• Hundreds of individuals were stopped at least 10 times during this period, and seven were stopped more than 30 times
• Only 3.7% resulted in citations or arrests
• From 2010 to 2015, prosecutors and booking supervisors rejected more than 11,000 charges made by BPD officers because they lacked probable cause or did not merit prosecution
Discrimination against African-Americans
BPD stops African-American drivers and pedestrians at disproportionate rates, subjecting them to greater rates of searches than whites, the report said, creating racial disparities at every stage of law enforcement actions, from stop to arrest, the report said.
"These racial disparities, along with evidence suggesting intentional discrimination, erode the community trust that is critical to effective policing."
Among the investigation's findings:
• African-Americans accounted for 95% of 410 individuals stopped at least 10 times from 2010 to 2016
• One African-American man in his 50s was stopped 30 times in less than four years; none of the stops resulted in a citation or criminal charge
• African-Americans accounted for 82% of all BPD vehicle stops though they make up 60% of the driving age population in the city and 27% percent of the driving age population in the greater metropolitan area
• BPD officers found contraband twice as often when searching white individuals compared to African-Americans during vehicle stops and 50% more often during pedestrian stops
Use of constitutionally excessive force
After reviewing all deadly force cases from January 2010 to May 1, and a random sample of more 800 than nondeadly force cases, the DOJ concluded that BPD engages in a pattern or practice of excessive force. Insufficient training and lack of oversight of those incidents perpetuate the pattern, leading to several recurring issues:
• Use of overly aggressive tactics that escalate encounters and increase tensions and failure to de-escalate encounters when appropriate to do so
• Frequently resorting to physical force when a person does not immediately respond to verbal commands, even if the subject poses no imminent threat to the officer or others
• Due to a lack of training and improper tactics, BPD officers end up in needlessly violent confrontations with people with mental health disabilities
• Failure to use widely accepted tactics for dealing with juveniles, treating them the same way as adults, leading to unnecessary conflict
• Use of excessive force against people already restrained and under officers' control
Retaliation for activities protected by the First Amendment
DOJ investigators found that officers "routinely infringe" upon First Amendment rights in the following ways:
• Unlawfully stopping and arresting people for cursing at officers, even though it's not illegal to use vulgar or offensive language as long as they are not "fighting words"
• Retaliating with excessive force against people in cases of protected speech
• Interfering with people who record police activity, including a time in which officers seized the phone of a man who recorded his friend being arrested and deleted all the videos on his phone, even personal videos of his son
