Justice Department Announces Findings of Investigation into Baltimore Police Department

The U.S. Department of Justice has released its damning findings after an investigation into the Baltimore Police Department. The report confirms that the BPD is a national disgrace to all law enforcement and is a hotbed of civil rights abuses and police misconduct. The department regularly engages in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution as well as federal anti-discrimination laws. BPD alos makes stops, searches and arrests without the required justification and sadly that's just the top of the iceberg. Read more about the USDOJ's findings below.

Justice Department Finds a Pattern of Civil Rights Violations by the Baltimore Police Department

The Justice Department announced today that it found reasonable cause to believe that the Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) engages in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution as well as federal anti-discrimination laws.  BPD makes stops, searches and arrests without the required justification; uses enforcement strategies that unlawfully subject African Americans to disproportionate rates of stops, searches and arrests; uses excessive force; and retaliates against individuals for their constitutionally-protected expression.  The pattern or practice results from systemic deficiencies that have persisted within BPD for many years and has exacerbated community distrust of the police, particularly in the African-American community.  The city and the department have also entered into an agreement in principle to work together, with community input, to create a federal court-enforceable consent decree addressing the deficiencies found during the investigation.

“Public trust is critical to effective policing and public safety,” said Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch.  “Our investigation found that Baltimore is a city where the bonds of trust have been broken, and that the Baltimore Police Department engaged in a pattern or practice of unlawful and unconstitutional conduct, ranging from the use of excessive force to unjustified stops, seizures and arrests.  The results of our investigation raise serious concerns, and in the days ahead, the Department of Justice will continue working tirelessly to ensure that all Baltimoreans enjoy the safety, security and dignity they expect and deserve.  I am grateful to all of the community members, local officials, faith leaders and current and former police officers who spoke with us during the course of our inquiry, and whose input will remain critical to our efforts as we move forward.  Additionally, I commend the city and BPD for its proactive and collaborative approach to our inquiry and for demonstrating a strong commitment to restoring public confidence by already taking steps to make needed changes.  I look forward to continuing our work together to implement urgent and necessary reforms.”

“We found that BPD has engaged in a pattern or practice of serious violations of the U.S. Constitution and federal law that has disproportionately harmed Baltimore’s African-American community and eroded the public’s trust in the police,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division.  “The agency also fails to provide officers with the guidance, oversight and resources they need to police safely, constitutionally and effectively.  In communities across America, even in communities where trust has been broken, we’ve seen transformative reform rebuild relationships and advance public safety.  In the weeks ahead, as we negotiate our consent decree with the city, we will seek input from law enforcement and community members.  With the city and commissioner’s commitment to reform, I am optimistic that we will work to drive that same progress in Baltimore.”

In May 2015, Attorney General Lynch announced the comprehensive investigation into the BPD after considering requests from city officials and hearing directly from community members about a potential pattern or practice of constitutional violations.  The investigation focused on BPD’s use of force, including deadly force; stops, searches and arrests; and discriminatory policing.

In the course of its pattern or practice investigation, the department interviewed and met with city leaders and police officials, including BPD Commissioner Kevin Davis, former commissioners and numerous officers throughout all ranks of the police department; accompanied line officers on dozens of ride-alongs in every police district; conducted hundreds of interviews and participated in meetings with community members, activists, and other stakeholders; reviewed hundreds of thousands of pages of police documents, including all relevant policies and training materials; and analyzed BPD’s data on internal affairs, use of force, sexual assault cases and pedestrian stops, searches and arrests.

During the course of its investigation, the department found that the legacy of “zero tolerance” street enforcement, along with deficient policies, training and accountability systems, resulted in conduct that routinely violates the Constitution and federal anti-discrimination law.  Throughout the investigation, the department heard consistently from both the community and law enforcement that BPD requires significant reforms to address problems that undermine its efforts to police constitutionally and effectively.  

The department found reasonable cause to believe that BPD engages in a pattern or practice of:

Conducting stops, searches and arrests without meeting the requirements of the Fourth Amendment;
Focusing enforcement strategies on African Americans, leading to severe and unjustified racial disparities in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the Safe Streets Act;
Using unreasonable force in violation of the Fourth Amendment;
Interacting with individuals with mental health disabilities in a manner that violates the Americans with Disabilities Act; and
Interfering with the right to free expression in violation of the First Amendment.
The department also identified serious concerns about other BPD practices, including an inadequate response to reports of sexual assault, which may result, at least in part, from underlying gender bias.  Another significant concern identified by the department was transport practices that place detainees at significant risk of harm.

In the agreement in principle, both parties agreed that compliance with the consent decree will be reviewed by an independent monitor.  The agreement in principle highlights specific areas of reform to be included in the consent decree, including:

Policies, training, data collection and analysis to allow for the assessment of officer activity and to ensure that officers’ actions conform to legal and constitutional requirements;
Technology and infrastructure to ensure capability to effectively monitor officer activity;
Officer support to ensure that officers are equipped to perform their jobs effectively and constitutionally; and
Community policing strategies to guide all aspects of BPD’s operations and help rebuild the relationship between BPD and the various communities it serves.
The agreement in principle provides a framework for change, but the department will be doing community outreach to solicit input in developing comprehensive reforms.  Comments may be provided by email at Community.Baltimore@usdoj.govEmail links icon.  

Throughout the department’s investigation, BPD leadership remained receptive to preliminary feedback and technical assistance, and started the process of implementing reforms.  BPD leadership has proactively taken steps to address some of the findings, including updating its policies, instituting new trainings and responding to other issues identified by the department.  While these measures are an important start to cooperative reform, a comprehensive agreement is still needed to remedy all of the department’s findings.  

In October 2014, city and BPD leadership requested to enter a collaborative reform process with the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS office).  While the Civil Rights Division opened the pattern or practice investigation in May 2015, the COPS office, the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs and others have maintained their ongoing efforts to offer federal resources, such as technical assistance, to the BPD, city officials and community leaders.

This investigation was conducted by the Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section with the assistance of law enforcement professionals pursuant to the pattern or practice provision of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.  Over the last seven years, the Special Litigation Section has opened 23 investigations into law enforcement agencies.  The section is enforcing 18 agreements with law enforcement agencies, including 14 consent decrees and one post-judgment order.  For more information on the Civil Rights Division and the Special Litigation Section, please visit www.justice.gov/crt.

BPD Findings Report

What's going on with Michael Jordan?

By George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com EMAIL

In the last couple of weeks something has happened to NBA legend Michael Jordan. In the past, Jordan has been notorious for doing little to help his own while profiting off his own by selling them $200 sneakers that they can't afford. This is a man who for most of his professional life has avoided even talking about issues that affect African Americans. He has not done or said anything that might piss off anyone for fear of hurting sneaker and apparel sales of Nike and his own brand.

But recently things seem to be changing. Jordan has given $1 million to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and another $5 million to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. That's not the Michael Jordan many of us have always heard about.

What is going on here? I have three theories.

THEORY ONE: An alien has inhabited the body of Michael Jordan and is trying to curry favor among humans before sending for his fleet of starships to blow us all to hell and take our entire species as a food source.

THEORY TWO: As Theory #1 is probably not likely here is my second theory. Mr. Jordan fell asleep and had a dream where three ghosts, the ghost of basketball past, the ghost of money loving present, and the ghost of lonely and despised future came to give him a visit. Jordan woke up terrified after seeing his grave site that no one except Nike employees visits and vowed to mend his selfish ways.

THEORY THREE: This is what I think is the most likely theory. Mr. Jordan has started to realize that he doesn't live in a bubble and is acknowledging what is going on around him. He has seen young NBA players like Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul step up and want to help their communities with just not words but with their actions. Jordan did a self-check after watching those younger players and realized that it's a shame that he didn't carry on the activist legacy of James Brown, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Muhammad Ali. He then realized that he is still a relatively young man, and there is still much that he can do with his fame, voice, and yes his money.

Micheal Jordan may not have come to this point in life when many of us would have liked him to, but it's better late than ever.

NAACP National President Cornell William Brooks arrested after sit in

NAACP National President and CEO Cornell William Brooks was charged with trespassing by local police after refusing to leave a Congressman’s district office in southwest Virginia on Monday.

The charges came after a six-hour, nonviolent protest calling for restoration of the Voting Rights Act in the Roanoke office of Representative Bob Goodlatte, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

After refusing to leave the building, Brooks was cited by Roanoke Police Department at the end of the business day along with Stephen Green, national director for the NAACP Youth and College Division. The protest was accompanied throughout the afternoon by members of the Roanoke NAACP and youth council.

NAACP officials have been urging congressional action to restore federal protection against state laws barring ballot access in states with the worst histories of voter suppression and discrimination. Goodlatte chair the House Judiciary Committee, which has refused to hold hearings on legislation to combat egregious voter discrimination in recent years.

“We’ve seen a Machiavellian frenzy of voter suppression in states that have worked deliberately and creatively to make it harder for young people, college students, minorities to vote for the candidate and party of their choice on Nov. 8,” Brooks said. “With the fate of our national moral character at stake, we must hold our elected leaders responsible to act to uphold the constitutional rights guaranteed for all citizens to vote and participate in our democracy.”

It is the 51st anniversary since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965, effectively banning state laws that denied the vote to black and minority voters for decades in Virginia and other southern states. Three years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down portions of the law that prohibited states from changing local election laws without federal review in the case of Shelby v. Holder.

Within days of the 2013 ruling, several states enacted exclusive voting laws designed to prevent young, old and minority residents from voting by requiring hard-to-obtain ID cards to register and cast a ballot on election days, as well as cutting back on successful registration programs and early voting hours that drove minority turnout to record-setting levels in 2008 and 2012.

Federal courts last month struck down voting laws in Kansas, Georgia, North Carolina, North Dakota, Michigan, Texas and Wisconsin as attempts to deliberately prevent entire populations from having easy access to the ballot.
After hours of occupying his office, Goodlatte issued a statement declining to take further action, saying that remaining provisions in the law are adequate. Brooks said the statement is insufficient.

“Congressman Goodlatte has said that he would support strengthening the Voting Rights Act if discrimination could be shown.  Six courts and six states have revealed such discrimination.  In the Congressman’s home state of Virginia, the U.S. Court Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found intentional discrimination in voting by the state of North Carolina,” Brooks said. “It is time for Congressman Goodlatte and Congress to honor the demonstrations of the past, and these demonstrations today to stop this widespread abuse. The congressman’s refusal to act for three years is insulting to these young men and women who want to exercise their basic rights under the Constitution.”  

Why Black Teens May Feel Pulled Between Health and Hair

Cultural pressure surrounding hair is so powerful that some African-American adolescents say they avoid sweating because it could mess up their tresses.

Gym class, school sports and other exercise routines bring important health benefits. But sweating also means potentially bad hair days and ruining time-consuming and costly hairstyles.

So Woolford, a pediatrician at the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit, along with her sister Carole Woolford-Hunt, Ph.D., of Andrews University in Michigan, and David Williams, Ph.D., of Harvard University, studied this cultural phenomenon. The researchers asked: Are lower levels of physical activity among African-American teens related to hair care?

The small study, which was recently published in BMC Obesity, included 36 African-American girls ages 14 to 17 in three states. The authors found a consistent theme among participants: Adolescent girls preferred straightened hair, which was viewed as the most “attractive” style, and said they avoided getting wet or sweating during exercise because they worried it would ruin their hairstyle.

Four main themes emerged from the study:

When concerns about hairstyles began between ages 8 and 15, participants changed from “juvenile” (natural) styles to “adult” (straightened) styles.

Participants avoided getting wet or sweating during exercise because their straightened hair became “nappy.”

Braids with extensions and natural styles were viewed as better for exercise, but not viewed as attractive.

Participants almost universally selected long, straight hairstyles as most attractive. Some thought short, natural hair was OK but that it “only looks good on some people.”

Read more about the study here: Why Black Teens May Feel Pulled Between Health and Hair

Micheal Jordan pledges 5 million to National Museum of African American History and Culture

Basketball icon Michael Jordan has donated $5 million to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, museum officials announced Monday.

The gift, the largest from a sports figure to the 19th Smithsonian museum, pushes private donations to the museum to $278 million. Including federal aid, the museum, which President Obama will open Sept. 24, has raised more than $548 million.

The Chicago Bulls star also gave a jersey that he wore during the 1996 NBA Finals to the museum’s permanent collection. In recognition of the gifts, the museum will name a section of its sports gallery the Michael Jordan Hall.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to support this museum,” Jordan said in a statement. “I also am indebted to the historic contributions of community leaders and athletes such as Jesse Owens, whose talent, commitment and perseverance broke racial barriers and laid the groundwork for the successful careers of so many African Americans in athletics and beyond.”

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