“The Civil Rights
Division of the Department of Justice has provided oversight and recommendations
for improvement of police services in a number of cities with consent decrees.
This is one of the most effective ways to reduce discrimination in law
enforcement and it needs to be beefed up and increased to cover as many of the
18,000-plus local law enforcement jurisdictions.”
The consent decrees
are already being implemented in Newark, New Jersey; Miami,
Florida; Los Angeles, California; Ferguson, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois;
and other municipalities.
Here's how it
works: the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice files a
lawsuit in federal court against a city, county, or state, alleging
constitutional and civil rights violations by the police or at a corrections
facility. It is done under 42 U.S.C. § 14141, a section of the 1994 Violent
Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, granting the attorney general the power
to prosecute law enforcement misconduct. The municipality then simply agrees to
the judicial finding — without contest — and the result is a wide-reaching
federal court order that imposes onerous regulations on local police.
The federal court
orders are designed to undo Rudy Giuliani-style policing tactics that were
effective at reducing crime in big cities in the 1990s and 2000s. Violent crime has decreased from 750 per
million population to 375 per million population.
In short, the
much-feared nationalization of local police departments is already being
initiated by the Obama administration's Justice Department. And somehow nobody
noticed.
Federal requirements include
how searches are conducted, what constitutes legitimate use of force, the
mandatory use of on-body cameras by the police, and so forth. The agreements
impose years-long compliance review regimes, implementation deadlines, and
regular reviews by federal bureaucrats. This makes local police directly
answerable to the Civil Rights Division at the DOJ.
One example includes a
77-page March 30 consent decree between the department and the City of Newark,
New Jersey, that resulted from a 2011 investigation, a 2014 series of findings
by the Civil Rights Division, and then finally a federal lawsuit alleging
police misconduct in the U.S. District Court in the District of New Jersey.
The original complaint
alleged that the Newark Police Department (NPD) "has engaged in a pattern
or practice of constitutional violations in its stop and arrest practices,
responses to individuals' exercise of their rights under the First Amendment,
uses of force, and theft by officers. The investigation also revealed that the
pattern or practice of constitutional violations stems in part from
deficiencies in NPD's systems that are designed to prevent and detect
misconduct, including its systems for reviewing force and investigating
complaints regarding officer conduct."
The city of Newark,
via the consent decree, agreed to the allegations and to implement a
"comprehensive and agency-wide policies and procedures that are consistent
with and incorporate all substantive requirements of this agreement,"
including rules on stops, searches, use of force, etc. The city has two years
to implement, with the full agreement lasting five years. Meaning — even
if the political parties change power in the city of Newark, the new mayor and
city council would still be required to implement the court order.
U.S. Cities with Active DOJ Consent Decrees
include Chicago IL with 11944 police, Los Angeles CA with 10000 police, Miami
FL with 1259 police and Ferguson MO with 54 police. Source:
Americans for Limited Government
These consent decrees
are in essence regulations. That, is, without the niceties of administrative
procedures requirements, public comments, or even any congressional oversight.
Remarkably,
congressional offices contacted by this author were generally unaware of the
regulation of local policing via DOJ consent decrees with cities — even though
the agreements have been implemented for years. Not a single hearing or word of
protest has occurred on this topic.
The lack of oversight
is pathetic enough — but to make matters even worse, this could actually
be the first step in a new wide-ranging body of federal rules on local police.
The Department of
Housing and Urban Development regulation "Affirmatively Furthering Fair
Housing" (AFFH) actually originated as a consent decree in 2009 against
Westchester County, New York, requiring affordable housing units to be built in
the county. Afterward, Republican Robert Astorino was elected county executive
and yet was still required to implement the court order.
Westchester became the
basis for AFFH, where every city and county in the country that accepts any
part of $3 billion of annual community development block grants to 1,200
recipient cities and counties now has to comply with HUD's dictates on zoning
along racial and income guidelines.
DOJ may very well end
up doing the same thing with the local police — that is, if Congress does not
wise up to what's really happening and defund implementation of 42 U.S.C. §
14141. This is dangerous. What is most chilling is how far along the Obama Justice
Department is in this process. The breadth of regulation here shatters any
notion of local governance or federalism. The Obama administration has been
pursuing the federal takeover of local police right under Congress' nose — and
Republicans in Congress were apparently unaware it was happening.
No doubt the practice
would continue under a Hillary Clinton administration too. Do you want a
Clinton Justice Department running your local police force? That is how
important the election in November suddenly becomes — with law and order
already hanging in the balance and police being targeted by domestic terrorists
in the slayings in Dallas and Baton Rouge.
As Americans for
Limited Government President Rick Manning noted in a statement calling
attention to the U.N.'s interest in the DOJ program and urging Congress to act,
"The fact that the U.N. Human Rights Council — which includes some of the
worst abusers of human rights in the world that hate the U.S. — is cheering for
this DOJ national takeover of the police should tell members everything they
need to know. It's time to support local police, not render them impotent via
federal restrictions against maintaining law and order. No less than the very
existence of local government is at stake."
Robert Romano is the senior editor of Americans for Limited Government.
http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/un-backs-secret-obama-takeover-of-police/
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