EP 873 Police Reform Efforts Stymied by the Justice Department

 Congress authorized the Justice Department to conduct civil investigations into constitutional abuses by police, such as excessive force or racially motivated policing back in 1994 as a response to the beating of Rodney King, a Black man, by white Los Angeles police officers.  And in the wake of the George Floyd killing at the hands of police in Minneapolis, new federal legislation was contemplated, but never passed, and the Justice Department launched 12 ‘pattern and practice’ investigations into police departments scattered across the country.  The Biden Administration’s Justice Department, under Merrick Garland, was slow, however, to enter into court-binding consent decrees that would be binding now.  The Trump Justice Department has no interest in pursuing these cases and, in fact, about 100 lawyers in the civil rights division have quit because of the direction of their unit and the Department.  So, basically, police reform in America is dead in this moment.  To discuss the state of affairs is Jim Mulvaney, an adjunct professor in the Law and Police Science Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download