Obama sends out 'civil rights investigators' to make sure city cops behave
[Shouldn't these investigators take a look at how politicians behave instead???]
President Obama has launched a major crackdown on big city police departments to make sure officers are behaving themselves on the ground.
In a major shift in policy since the Bush era, 'civil rights investigators' are being sent out by Obama's Justice Department to large urban police departments to investigate claims of racial bias, sexual discrimination and complaints of officers being too heavy handed.
The move has been welcomed by civil rights campaigners but critics say it is a wholly 'unnecessary' interference which will tighten bureaucracy and make it harder for officers to do their job.
The department has announced investigations into civil rights abuses in Newark, N.J. and Seattle over the past year and a preliminary investigation has been launched into the Denver Police Department.
These follow the already high-profile effort by the Justice Department to reform police in New Orleans, after the prosecution of several officers who were involved in killing innocent residents in the days after Hurricane Katrina.
Cracking down: Obama's Justice Department will send out agents to investigate civil rights abuses at big urban police departments
In one case last year in Seattle, an officer was caught on camera stamping on the head of an innocent Hispanic man, who was suspected of robbery at the time, while shouting: 'I'm going to beat the f****** Mexican p**s out of you, homey.'
In another case in Newark, two officers allegedly threatened to throw a juvenile over a bridge when he refused to confess to a crime, then beat and urinated on him.
The investigations, referred to as 'pattern and practice', stem from a law passed in 1994 by Congress after Rodney King was beaten by white officers in Los Angeles, while they shouted racial slurs at him.
The law gives the Justice Department authority to sue police departments if it decides rights abuses have occurred.
Civil rights campaigners welcomed the move, saying it was about time proper investigations were launched into perceived Bush-era abuses such as prosecution of whistle-blowers and torture.
'Under the Bush administration, the Justice Department disappeared here in terms of federal civil rights enforcement. You could see the shift to counter-terrorism at the ground level after September 11,'
WHAT PROMPTED THE CRACKDOWN
Civil rights investigators can sue police departments if officers harass any racial or sexual minorities, make false arrests, or are deemed to have used excessive force.
In Seattle, a police officer was caught on camera last year stamping on an innocent Latino man's head after yelling that he would beat the 'Mexican p**s' out of him.
In Newark, two officers allegedly threatened to throw a juvenile off a bridge for refusing to confess to a crime and then urinated on him .
In New Orleans, several police officers have been prosecuted for killing innocent civilians in the chaotic days after Katrina.
In Denver, an African American college student accused three police officers of savagely beating him while shouting racial slurs during a January 2009 traffic stop.
Mary Howell, a New Orleans civil rights attorney, told Salon. 'Now they're back doing criminal prosecutions of police and the civil rights investigation, which is huge.'
Critics, however, say the measures distort facts, making it seem as if these abuses of power happen more often than is, in fact, the case.
They say thoroughly investigating police officers will waste time better spent on the streets protecting citizens.
In September, Newark Mayor Cory Booker dismissed a report on civil rights abuses saying it 'cast unnecessary aspersions on the police department through the distortion of facts.'
A police officer on the blog Duke's Blotter wrote: 'Not all police officers are perfect and some might even be criminal but it does not mean that we need to make the whole profession look criminal.
'We all understand the "one bad apple" argument but more time should be spent on showing it is just one bad apple than on making the entire barrel look bad.'
Under the Bush administration, 22 'pattern and practice' investigations were launched, while so far eight have been opened under Obama.
The Bush-era investigations were, however, much smaller scale than the current crackdown on large urban police departments.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1392847/Obama-cracks-police--sending-civil-rights-investigators-make-sure-cops-behave-ground.html#ixzz1O5SS6mbO
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1392847/Obama-cracks-police--sending-civil-rights-investigators-make-sure-cops-behave-ground.html#ixzz1O5S8OFRf_______
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