Ya Think?: DOJ Report Confirms Baltimore Cops Are Pretty Damn Racist

Baltimore police officers routinely discriminate against blacks, repeatedly use excessive force and are not adequately held accountable for misconduct, according to a harshly critical Justice Department report being presented Wednesday.

The investigation was launched in 2015 following the widely publicized death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African-American who died from wounds he sustained while in BPD custody.

The report on the 2,600-officer department released on Tuesday found that black residents were regularly subjected to stops as pedestrians and motorists, arrests, strip searches and excessive force in violation of USA constitutional rights and federal anti-discrimination laws.

The report concludes that the relationship between the police department and Baltimore’s residents is “broken” and says that investigators discovered over the course of many interviews that people in impoverished, minority communities often felt “belittled, disbelieved and disrespected” by police officers.

“Everyone agreed that the Baltimore Police Department needs sustainable reform”, Vanita Gupta of the DOJ Civil Rights Division says.

The Baltimore Police Department, like many police departments across the country, is unconstitutionally biased against Black citizens, as well as people suffering from mental illness, trans women, sex workers, and those who come forward to report sexual assault or harassment.

The city has entered into an agreement in principle with the U.S. government to negotiate a consent decree to create reforms, which will be monitored by the U.S. District Court in Maryland.

“Fighting crime and having a better, more respectful relationship with the community are not mutually exclusive endeavors”. “They just harass people”.

The media relations team of the police department could not be reached Tuesday night. Baltimore supervisors and prosecutors dismissed 11,000 charges during that time period.

A report released by the Department of Justice today states that blacks in Baltimore, located less than an hour from our nation’s capital in Washington, account for roughly 84 percent of all stops. Use of force standards: The DOJ found that the BPD uses aggressive tactics that escalate tense situations and result in the excessive use of force.

Rawlings-Blake, when discussing those broad, city-wide problems, said “no one is waiting around until we solve poverty” before addressing the problems in the police department. “We have to heal our city”, she added.

She said that the city has already begun trying to reform the police department even while the Justice Department was undertaking the investigation.

Rosalyn Kelly, 54, said she was once chased and choked by a police officer in West Baltimore, where she was born and raised. Full data reporting: The available data uncovered startling disparities, such as the fact that “hundreds of individuals-nearly all of them African American-were stopped on at least 10 separate occasions from 2010-2015”. Gray’s death was one of a series of incidents in various cities in the past two years that have raised questions about racial discrimination in United States law enforcement. Six officers were initially charged in Gray’s death, but after three officers were acquitted, charges against the rest were dropped.

I invite all members of the community to join me in praying for our city, for those who justly protect its citizens, and for all who call Baltimore home.

The DOJ found hope in the dedication of the community and the City of Baltimore to address the serious deficiencies the report exposed. Some officers were fired, he said, others disciplined. He stood by Gray’s step father, Richard Shipley, during a news conference after meeting with Justice Department officials in Baltimore.

“BPD’s failings result from deficient policies, training, oversight and accountability, and policing strategies that do not engage effectively with the community the department services”, the study reads.