Next Up: police reform for the United States

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In the aftermath of the George Floyd killing a little more than three weeks ago, America has entered a phase of protests against social injustice, not seen since the mid 1960s, and the demand for a change in policing against black Americans, they have crowded the nation’s streets.

Reaching back, we can see that the problem has existed for decades, and in some cities, there has been a brutal legacy, Cmdr. Jon Burge, in Chicago, is but one known example, as he tortured and brutalized hundreds of black men in the 1950s.

George Floyd

Floyd’s name, unfortunately, enters a long litany of black people victimized by the police, their names engraved as the inheritors of racial prejudice in the country, but now, the challenge presents itself: to begin to change wholesale systemic racism, in a new “woke” country, where there are urgent calls to stop the killings, made even more urgent after the shooting of another unarmed black man, this time Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, after a sobriety test.

The most urgent question, among many, is how can there be effective, legal, and race neutral policing in a society that has prided itself on a legacy of freedom? It seems to begin with the surge of young people, black, white and brown, that have taken to the streets to demand change, chanting among others, the elegiac words: “I can’t breathe!”

Can America finally come of age and demand accountability from those tasked to serve and protect? This, of course, is a monumental task, and the fact that both shootings occured in progressive cities; one with a progressive mayor,and the other, headed by a black woman, speaks volumes about the change to long held biased behavior, and where some police departments have become a law unto themselves.

Starting points

In Chicago, where the city’s first black gay female mayor is Lori Lightfoot, who by her own admission, is no stranger to protest, has suggested, among other plans, to have young people of color give tours of their South and West neighborhoods to police, so that they can get to know the places, and people, that they serve, since one of the many charges is that white officers do not have any knowledge of the black communities that they patrol, and often charge in like an occupying force without attempts to understand the residents.

Understandably, this action alone will not by itself create change but in a less than perfect world, the beginning has to have a start, and developing youth leadership is a laudable goal.

Crossing from the earlier hopeful years of the last century, Martini Luther King, John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” can be a starting point to reawaken the legacy of those efforts; but, also needs a rallying point to begin afresh, and this has begun with the murder of Floyd, and now Brooks. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom was the first to take the bull by the horns and had his attorney general, Jackie Lacey, outlaw the choke hold maneuver that was used by Minneapolis police and now those efforts have been galvanized by police associations in San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles.

Law enforcement response

“The San Jose Police Officers Association, the San Francisco Police Officers Association and the Los Angeles Police Protective League are announcing this effort with full-page ads in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News,” reported ABC7News.com.

Together they said, “"Our unions are committed to the continuous improvement of policing in America," the statement reads, in part. " We believe that each of our departments has made tremendous strides in strengthening accountability, transparency and adopting policies that reduce the number and severity of uses-of-force.”

Among a host of ideas, these are but a sample of the most salient:: ”a national database of former police officers fired for gross misconduct to help prevent other agencies from hiring them; a national use-of-force standard that emphasizes a reverence for life, de-escalation, a duty to intercede if witnessing excessive force or misconduct,” and “an early warning system to identify officers that may need more training and mentoring; ongoing and frequent crisis intervention and de-escalation training of police officers; and a transparent and publicly accessible use-of-force analysis website that allows the public to monitor when and how force is used.”

Many advocates have also stressed that police misconduct is  a violation of the Fourth Amendment, a fact that is often lost in the plurality of voices in the national and social media.

Taking a look at the recent past

If the past is prologue then there has to be a look at the recent past, and that takes us to the 2017 Chicago Consent Decree that was created in the waning days of the Obama administration, under the direction of then U.S. Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, all 164 pages that made a number of succinct observations about both the conduct and the character of much of the Chicago Police Department.

Both its release, and the resulting press conference, delivered a firestorm of reaction, from former Mayor Rahm Emanuel who characterized it as “misguided” and a wholesale disregard by former police superintendent, Garry McCarthy.

Chicago faced a mountain of accusations for its police board and force: “A review by the feds of more than 100 IPRA files revealed a consistent unwillingness to probe or dispute officers’ narratives, according to a source familiar with the DOJ’s findings. The report is also expected to point to specific use-of-force cases that revealed insufficient training in de-escalation techniques,” according to the Chicago Sun Times.

Pointedly, it also supported U.S. Constitutional violations, and racial disparities.

It reached its zenith of  condemnation by the U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in his confirmation hearings said, “"These lawsuits undermine the respect for police officers and create an impression that the entire department is not doing their work consistent with fidelity to law and fairness, and we need to be careful before we do that." 

Jeff Sessions and Pres. Trump

Vanita Gupta, then working under Lynch noted, much later, in a letter of support, that for the city, it was paramount, according to the Chicago SunTimes, who reported that she said,“The city wants this reform,” and “The Chicago Police Department wants this reform. And the community, which has been waiting far too long, wants this reform.”

Sessions later remarked, “Chicago’s violent crime crisis would not be solved through civil litigation, and murders of Chicagoans will not be prevented by subjecting the CPD and its officers to multiple, costly monitors through various settlement agreements and consent decrees.”

Using a less than conciliatory tone, he then added, in a later speech, according to reports, that “he also complained that “lame-duck politicians” wrote the proposed consent decree to control CPD “from their political graves.”

One year later, in the aftermath of the police shooting of black teenager, Laquan McDonald, Emanuel, did a turn about, and with the then State Attorney General Lisa Madigan, at his side, announced a state directed consent decree, with Madigan stating that, ““For decades, Chicago has endured tragedies ... and failed attempts at real police reform. The resulting lack of trust between the public and police is untenable, and exacerbates a complicated violence problem,” Madigan said. “The consent decree gives us a unique opportunity to change that.”

That agreement with input from Black Lives Matter was given a five year period to implement changes.

However it was later revealed that while CPD had implemented some of the decree, others it has not, for others;and, mostly on use of force, with a “met” of only 37 of 50 deadlines, according to the federally appointed monitor Maggie Hickey.

The way ahead

In its response, CPD said in a statement, that “it remains committed to adopting and implementing the meaningful, enforceable police reforms outlined in the consent decree.”

“While we are working diligently to comply with the requirements as quickly as possible, we are placing greater importance on affirming the reforms have undergone the appropriate reviews to ensure we’re working toward a more transparent, accountable and professional Department of which the entire city can be proud. We believe that public safety and reform strategies are mutually reinforcing and can be accomplished simultaneously, and will continue working alongside the Independent Monitoring Team and Office of the Illinois Attorney General to implement change and sustain compliance with the consent decree.”

On Thursday Hickey announced that Chicago had met 25 of 74 items between September of. 2019 and February 29th, of this year, two thirds of its consent decree deadlines, in her second of ten semiannual reports that she and her team will provide over the next five years.

WTTW Chicago reported that “In a joint statement published following the report’s release, Lightfoot and CPD Superintendent David Brown said Hickey’s findings illustrate “how the level of transformational change and reform we are working toward cannot be reached overnight.”

“While we have continued to build on a host of police reform and accountability measures since then, we have been clear that this moment is just the start, not the end of our journey,” they said. “We can do better, and we are redoubling our efforts to meet important milestones mandated by the consent decree.”

Hickey also plans to release a report on the recent protests and civil unrest that roiled the city.

The view from the White House

What most have noted most lacking in the discussion is federal leadership, namely from President Trump, whose recent statements seem to indicate a lack of firmness, and a direction that is focused on playing to his political base, despite last week’s ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, where he read the names of those killed in police action, and mentioned the possibility of banning choke holds, with some exceptions.

The president seemed anxious to change the subject and segue into a discussion of the stock market and retail sales. And, then somewhat bizarrely to both listeners and television viewers, then said that “school choice” was a new course for civil rights; which most Capitol Hill observers attribute to Education Secretary Betsy De Vos’s influence.

Reaction has been tepid, and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi described it as “inadequate.”

Previously the president has referred to peaceful protesters as “thugs” and “terrorists” and in the ceremony noted that he believed that there was a “small number of police officers” involved and “they are very tiny, I use the word tiny.”

In a bill tasked by Sen. Tim Scott, by Trump, it seems to be, in the words of his critics, to nibble around the edges of the problem and offers encouragement for choke hold bans and no knock entries by police, and while it provides anti lynching seems to encourage the study through commissions of the lack of police accountability, which is often seen as the death knell for issues that don’t have political support.

Sen. Scott

The lack of an explicit ban on the above measures gives credence to "The Senate proposal of studies and reporting without transparency and accountability is inadequate," said Pelosi in a statement. "The Senate's so-called Justice Act is not action."

Meanwhile Scott said that he hoped that his bill would take the same precautions that the Congress took with COVID 19 and according to NPR, added, “"I believe if we take that same consciousness into this process, and we don't make it about bipartisan or partisan politics, we make it about families who have lost loved ones, we make it about restoring trust, about respecting officers ... we'll get to the finish line," Scott said.

The House has its own competing bill and “The proposal, titled the Justice in Policing Act, would prohibit police from using choke-holds, create a national registry to track police misconduct, lower legal standards to pursue criminal and civil penalties for police misconduct, and ban certain no-knock warrants. (You can read a summary of the bill here.),” reported  NPR.

Across the country there has been specific responses that mirror these bills, but in stronger terms, such as New York, which has disbanded the types of plain clothes units such as the one in the Eric Garner case; and, in New Jersey, the Attorney General has ordered the police to disclose the names of police with “severe discipline violations.”

In Chicago, Lightfoot has proposed a “panel of residents, activists and police officers” to review policy and when officers can use force.

The recognition of the magnitude of police reform for black Americans has unified people across the globe, in the United Kingdom, and Japan, to name but two, and has also enjoined the struggle for protective rights towards LGBT people, and all those whose lives have been endangered, even beyond police reform, tilting the demands for human rights.

The Guardian, a UK newspaper and website, perhaps said it best, when they noted, in their coverage, that with the coronavirus, and the subsequent deterioration of the U.S. economy, that “This is a perfect storm killing Black Americans.”