Kwame Raoul. | AP Photo/Seth Perlman
Eighteen Democratic state attorneys general are pressing Congress to grant them "explicit authority" to investigate police departments with a pattern of abuse after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer stirred nationwide social unrest.
“Urgent action is necessary at all levels of government to remedy the injustice of police misconduct,” the AGs wrote in a letter Thursday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Giving that direction would help state authorities obtain data about excessive uses of force by law enforcement officers and bring appropriate enforcement actions to federal court, particularly when the federal government is unwilling or unable to act.
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Their letter to Congress comes as Attorney General William Barr and his Justice Department have taken heat for not initiating a “pattern-or-practice” investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department in the wake of Floyd’s killing. The attorneys general also say an investigation is needed in the case of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by police who were searching her home in Kentucky.
Such investigations could lead to a consent decree and other reforms, the attorneys general say.
Floyd’s death “shocked” the nation, but his death is just one of many in a long line of African Americans who have lost their lives to the use of excessive force by police, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who, along with New York Attorney General Tish James, is leading the effort, told POLITICO.
“We’re the legal protector of citizens unable to protect themselves. So when the Department of Justice says — as it previously has — that it is not the federal government's responsibility to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies, attorneys general have a duty to step in and hold our local law enforcement agencies accountable,” Raoul said in an interview. “Even if a more friendly administration were to come along, the reality is federal law enforcement doesn’t have the bandwidth to do it all.”
James, Raoul and AGs in states, including California and New Jersey, want Congress to expand the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, a measure enacted in response to Rodney King's beating by Los Angeles police officers three years earlier.
Between 1994 and 2017, there were 69 investigations into police departments resulting in 40 consent decrees, according to the Thursday letter. Under the Trump administration, there have been no investigations, and DOJ officials have indicated that states should handle such probes.
The state leaders also point to a memo from Jeff Sessions where the former attorney general stated that “local control and local accountability are necessary for effective local policing. It is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies.”
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June 05, 2020 at 06:42AM
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State AGs urge Congress to grant them authority to probe local police departments - POLITICO
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