Posted on 08/25/2014 10:21:11 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Rep. Elijah Cummings, along with other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, sent a letter Monday to President Barack Obama, urging the administration to pursue changes to local law enforcement structure to prevent more Fergusons, including a federal czar to oversee local law enforcement.
The administration must quickly establish a national commission to review existing police policies and practices, the letter reads. And identify the best policies and practices that can prevent more Fergusons and vastly improve policing in communities across the nation.
In addition to the commission, the letter calls for the appointment of a federal czar within the Justice Department to monitor and oversee local police departments that receive federal funding.
Besides Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, Democratic Reps. Marcia Fudge of Ohio, Steven Horsford of Nevada, John Lewis of Georgia, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin and Barbara Lee of Texas signed the letter, as well as AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and actress Cynthia Nixon.
The letter comes the same day as the funeral for 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was shot and killed Aug. 9 by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer. The letter says Brown is only the latest in a long list of black men and boys who have died under eerily similar circumstances.
The pattern is too obvious to be a coincidence and too frequent to be a mistake, the letter reads, while acknowledging that many facts regarding Browns death are still unclear.
The letter notes both systemic racial bias and the militarization of police departments as dangerous trends and outlines a number of actions for the administration to address, including racial bias training for every local police department under guidelines set by the Justice Department. It also calls upon the Justice Department to set and implement national standards for investigations when police shoot unarmed victims as well as to set, implement and monitor diversity hiring and retention. The letter urges the administration to suspend programs that provide local police with military equipment while authorizing support under existing grants to foster more engagement between local law enforcement officers and the communities they serve.
Just curious - I know cities' police officers are unionized, are small town cops unionized?
It would be sold as “for the people”; it would be enforced “for THEIR people.”
The Capitol is looking to power grab on yet another front.
With this kind of ‘reasoning’, why even have states? What’s the point? Just have a federal government, picked by ‘majority vote’ (i.e. by those living in our most populous cities). Why shouldn’t people living in central Nebraska be told by people in New York how they should live their lives? If you don’t live in NY, Chicago, LA, San Fran, Boston, Atlanta, or in certain university towns, you probably aren’t ‘sophisticated’ enough to decide how you should be governed, so why should you have a say? Yes, sarcasm, but not far at all from the way some think things should be.
Another nice fat government bureaucracy...
Negro control of local law enforcement........ that’s the ticket.
Sheriff Joe will probably instantly comply with such an order.
BTW, I have one degree of separation with Sheriff Joe. I learned this week that a good conservative friend dined with hinm at a conservative gathering in Mountain View California.
Is that what’s behind this Michael Brown circus? An excuse to form a federal Gestapo?
It is well established legal fact, that there is _no_ Federal police power; or was.
Not good; this would be the end of the beginning.
My guess is that the DOD equipment was meant to be used against patriots and conservatives. Instead, that equipment is aimed at rat voters infesting the liberal cities.
Oops! Another example of unintended consequences created by the Washington commies and fascists.
Dang, I can't stand RINOs, but as “filler,” they can fulfill a higher purpose than even they could imagine.
The primaries are our greatest opportunity to swing elected offices back toward conservatism.
You fight with the army you have. If stupid Democrats get this sort of thing through, felons will be able to commit all the crimes they want, in the interest of “fairness.”
Thanks for the ping.
5.56mm
Federal funding is like heroin for state polidiots.
Giving power over law and order to holder is like letting Jesse James run the railroad”””
Or letting O J Simpson operate a chain of abused women’s shelters......
Full of DREAMers.
ouch
Thanks for the ping.
It will be the emergence of the Obama SS.
Zeig Heil!
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