The Justice Department’s Reforms Come To Cities’ Police Departments
How communities tell their stories of civil rights violations by the police
Racism is a nightmare that never ends and as long as racism is embedded in practically every institution on America’s soil, all will suffer, directly or indirectly.
“But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, … But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt”. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Not all law enforcement officers are evil but there are so many horrible and racist cops, that the good officers reside in the dark behind the many attrotricies that have been justified by high ranking officers who have given their support of racist acts against people of color.
In the last few years, blatant racist killings have come to the light and many are yet either waiting for trial or presently in the courts. You’d think a few guilty verdicts would alert officers to watch or change their evil behavior against people of color, as a matter of fact, many have gotten angry and their anger has been shown in their policing practices on an elevated level.
To convey how rampant racism has been in the police department, some police officers of color who have tried to do the right thing when it came to policing but they were either fired or subjugated to ill-treatment by the police department.
Across the country, not a day goes by without hearing about racist acts done by police department officers but thank goodness the attorney generals around the country are launching their own independent investigation into police brutality and excessive use of force against people of color.
Likewise in Minneapolis, Minnesota, there is an ongoing civil rights investigation of the Minneapolis police due to their racist treatment of Blacks, mainly. Lots of residents are stepping forward and sharing their interactions with racist cops.
Terrance Jackson is one of a thousand people who have horrid stores to share about their run-ins with police officers. In 2002, Jackson conveyed how he innocently stopped his car to intervene upon seeing his cousin was being arrested for driving without an invalid license. When he offered to take his cousin’s car home versus it being towed away, he found himself being grabbed by one of the officers who bent his hand back trying to provoke him, while being restrained his shoe came off and another officer threw him across the parking lot.
These thousands of testimonies about police brutality in Minneapolis had been shared with activist groups whose plan is to share these stories with the U.S. Justice Department officials who are conducting their own nationwide investigation into law enforcement’s practice and patterns against people of color that is unlawful and unconstitutional. The justice department intervention could demand the police legally to change their practices and patterns of racism.
The magnitude of civilian accounts of police racist practices and patterns of ill behavior would embolden the investigation which would make it harder for the investigation to ignore the abuse. The victims’ testimonies will put a real face to all these atrocities.
Early on a ballot initiative was rejected by the Minneapolis voters to replace the city’s Police Department with a public safety agency and less reliance on the city’s police department, but the investigation ensued in the face of this prior outcome.
Overseeing the police department practices became an issue as a result of the Rodney King beating that sparked a riot and thereafter emerged a tool, the 1990s, an independent commission due to Los Angeles Police Department institutional failure to handle the situation. Thereby, Congress authorized the attorney general to investigate a pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officers for their violation of people’s civil rights.
In the last few years, the actions of the attorney generals across the country have been more visible due to the outcry of the public regarding systemic racism within the police department and how the police union provided qualified immunity shielding officers and their actions from any punishment.
To date, these such nationwide civil rights investigation has culminated into 40 reform agreements after they conducted almost 70 formal probes of police departments.
Under Biden’s administration, the Justice Department has stepped up to the plate investigating Minneapolis law enforcement, after George Floyd’s death, in Louisville, Kentucky, after the death of Breonna Taylor, and Phoenix over excessive force allegations. These findings will be reported to a federal judge via a federally appointed monitor.
The Justice Department could demand changes within these cities where it is clearly evident that the city’s police department has clearly committed racist acts against people of color.
Ferguson, Missouri’s police department was found guilty in their policing violating people of color civil rights after the killing of Michael Brown in 2014, their policing was changed regarding their use of force, body-worn cameras, searches, and seizures, and responses to protests.
These changes were made possible after the community shared their personal accounts about their city’s police officers’ racist practices and how these actions were backed up by the court system.
The consistencies in these various communities’ personal stories gave credence to the reality of unlawful practices and policing ill-practices, making not only the police department accountable but specific officers, units, tactics, or types of interactions as these testimonies were validated against the city’s arrest records documentation and/or police body-cam video.
In conclusion, when the personal stories of communities of color are shared with the Justice Department, they speak volumes and can bring about reforms. Everyone has a voice and should not be silent with the truth of police civil rights violations of others because one day the table could turn. Complaints turn into training and training turn into policy!
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