This week saw yet another report of a police force, this time in Baltimore, having a serious structural problem of excessive force, violence, and bias directed at black citizens. We shouldn’t be surprised by now. We shouldn’t be shocked. We shouldn’t have to continue arguing and fighting that movements like Black Lives Matter actually have a legitimate point. Not after the Department of Justice has issued a report that includes this:
In many of those cases, the victims of the violence had come forward to file a complaint with the police department. One of the DOJ's findings is that the Baltimore police actively worked to discourage and suppress complaints from citizens. (As MSNBC's Trymaine Lee put it, the investigation took 14 months "to reveal what black folks in the city of Baltimore have known for generations.")...
"Lock up all the black hoodies," a commander once ordered.
Another officer wrote on Facebook, "Do not treat criminals like citizens."
Then there was a template, supplied by a shift commander to a sergeant and patrol officer, for reporting the arrest of someone for standing near a public housing unit without a "valid reason." That's a "facially unconstitutional detention," the DOJ wrote:
"Equally troubling is the fact that the template contains blanks to be filled in for details of the arrest, including the arrest data and location and the suspect's name and address, but does not include a prompt to fill in the race or gender of the arrestee. Rather, the words 'black male' are automatically included in the description of the arrest." (emphasis added)
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/82yecjIzUgk/-DOJ-proves-yet-again-that-American-police-are-biased-bigoted-and-dangerous
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