Assault on Police in Consent Decree City
Political Heat, Post 4 - Elections have consequences
The USA landscape is strewn with DOJ investigations…
and with angry people who will never be satisfied until equity in the form of marxism prevails.
Last Friday, August 9, marked the tenth anniversary of the Ferguson, Mo., protest of the death of Michael Brown, a black teen who was killed by a white officer, Darren Wilson. The protest turned violent, reported by AP:
As midnight approached, only a few dozen remained, and some of those protesters began shaking and damaging a fence outside the police station.
Officer Travis Brown (no relation to Michael Brown -ed) was among officers who went out to make arrests. Police on Tuesday released body camera footage showing one suspect, identified as 28-year-old Elijah Gantt of East St. Louis, Illinois, charging Travis Brown on a sidewalk and knocking him backward. The video shows Brown landing hard, his head striking the pavement. Both Brown and Gantt are Black.
Officer Brown is in a coma. The protestor who damaged the fence outside of the police station, drawing the police outside, was a Democrat National Convention delegate and a member of the St. Louis Civilian Oversight Board.
Ferguson citizens have not understood why protestors were so angry. Blacks and whites alike love Travis. What can change or convince those who see racism where there is none?
In 2014 a St. Louis County prosecutor, Wesley Bell, reviewed the Michael Brown case for five months and concluded:
Could we prove beyond a reasonable doubt that when Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown he committed murder or manslaughter under Missouri law? After an independent and in-depth review of the evidence, we cannot prove that he did.
Nevertheless, the DOJ investigated and issued a Consent Decree which is still in effect.
A search for comments about DOJ consent decrees led to this list of Key Findings:
Consent decrees are the most onerous and costly of available federal police interventions;
Recent DOJ investigations often rely on questionable evidence to prove a “pattern or practice” of unconstitutional policing;
Cities and agencies agree to burdensome settlements under duress, with nearly every targeted jurisdiction accepting the Justice Department’s claims and remedies;
These settlement agreements are used to impose policy preferences on law enforcement agencies, outside the scope of DOJ’s statutory authority and the law’s intent;
Metrics, timetables, and outcomes for agency compliance are ill-defined, unachievable, and subject to the whims of federal monitors and judges;
Communities and departments under decrees suffer from rising crime and lower clearance rates, ballooning costs to local taxpayers, plummeting officer morale, and greater community dissatisfaction;
Narrowly targeted, cooperative interventions including Technical Assistance (TA) letters and Memorandums of Agreement (MOA) are more effective alternatives;
Where necessary, police consent decrees should be highly focused on remedying clear and urgent violations through proven and achievable strategies.
The Trump administration issued no Consent Decrees. The graph shows current and past DOJ investigations, many which led or are leading to CDs. Minneapolis has a CD under Biden. Phoenix, Arizona, is fighting hard to avoid one. Louisville is going along.
If Trump wins in 2024, there will be political heat to help cities and police departments avoid CDs. Can Louisville not trust its local leadership to guide and ensure honest and good policing? If not, why not? Citizens must get involved.
AN ASIDE: It is sorrowful to reflect on the misery that lies inflict on their victims, their families, and on societies. Maybe feeling sorrow can help us to stand up for those who are so deeply wounded by lies.
The Russian Dossier, also known as the Steele Dossier for its compiler, Christopher Steele, funded by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, seriously undermined our national culture and Trump’s presidency.
Trump nevertheless forged ahead and kept his campaign promise to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country, in part through executive orders fully supported by his appointment of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General.
But then, Sessions’ work and agenda to uphold the Constitution was undermined by Sen. Lindsey Graham who called for him to recuse himself from any investigations into the Russian Dossier accusations, followed by Democrats calling on Sessions to resign his post as Attorney General. Pelosi and others accused him of lying under oath in relation to Russiagate. The Dossier caused friction between Trump and Sessions since Trump knew he was innocent and wanted Sessions to defend him. A mess. And it was all a ‘Dem’ lie, as we now know.
The video linked here, at about 13 minutes, begins the testimony of Sessions, explaining how wrong the accusations against him were. The video linked here shows Sessions was loved and admired by his co-workers.
Lies destroy reputations, careers, whole communities and institutions.
Jeff Sessions said in 2008:
One of the most dangerous, and rarely discussed, exercises of raw power is the issuance of expansive court decrees. Consent decrees have a profound effect on our legal system as they constitute an end run around the democratic process.