When President Trump rejected the path forward set forth by his predecessor Barack Obama regarding Project Safe Neighborhoods, consent decrees, and the rollback of mandatory sentencing, he unleashed a form of systemic oppression that would treat black people far harsher than it would their white counterparts in the federal criminal justice system. As we draw near to the end of the Trump administration, it is vitally important that we undue as many of his regressive policies as possible. President-Elect Joe Biden must be made aware of these policies. Citizens who work to reform the broken criminal justice system in America have a duty to become informed about existing inequities, and then share that information with the incoming administration, accompanied by a firm insistence that it is addressed.
In a previous article, this author outlined how federal prosecutions which focused on allegations of illegal firearm possession, disproportionately targeted black men. These programs: Project Safe Neighborhoods, and Operation Legend, were heralded by President Trump, Attorney Generals Jeff Sessions, and William Barr, and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Josh Minkler as solutions to to the nation’s homicide rates. While doing nothing to reduce murders here in central Indiana, these failed policies have been successful at one thing: placing scores of black folks in jails, holding facilities, and ultimately federal prisons. In the time that the Trump administration has been in office and reactivated these ineffective aspects of the aforementioned programs, Indianapolis has broken the homicide record year after year. In 2020, the city has already surpassed the previous record of 159 murders and is well over 200 and climbing. Earlier this year, as the number of murders continued to rise, Barr, and Minkler held a press conference in which they claimed that their federal program, Operation Legend, under President Trump, was reducing homicides in the city of Indianapolis. As the previous numbers indicate, that simply was not, and is not, true.
For nuance, it must be noted that when the Obama administration inherited Project Safe Neighborhood from President Bush, they immediately recognized the ineffectiveness of over incarceration fueled by blanket prosecutions of black folks. Under Attorney Generals Loretta Lynch, and Eric Holder, the direction of Project Safe Neighborhood was altered:
“First we must call attention not only to the symptoms, but also to the causes of violence. Robust enforcement efforts must incorporate a focus on prevention and an effort to understand the root causes of violent crime.” Those were the words of Attorney General Eric Holder back in 2010 as he articulated the changes to Project Safe Neighborhood that must be made in addressing crime in America.
In accordance with those words, specific aspects of Project Safe Neighborhood were defunded, and those resources were reallocated into areas that focused on the root causes of crime. Via an article by Fact Check entitled Obama’s Final Numbers, the end result of this approach was that homicide numbers trended down and then leveled off when he left office, and overall violent crime rates dropped by more than 15 percent. In addition, another article from Politifact indicated that incarceration rates also dropped significantly under President Obama.
Consent Decrees
In the wake of continuing acts of unjustified police violence against unarmed citizens, the Obama administration’s Department of Justice entered into a number of settlement agreements with law enforcement agencies all around the country. These agreements, known as consent decrees, mandated that those police forces begin enacting systemic changes under the close scrutiny of independent federal monitors. Cities including Baltimore, Chicago, and Seattle, were among the numerous metropolitan areas that agreed to make these changes.
When Mike Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri by police officer Darren Wilson in 2014, a federal investigation was launched by President Obama’s Department of Justice. When asked, most people will say that Officer Wilson was cleared of any wrongdoing, and the “hands up don’t shoot” phrase that became popular in the aftermath of Brown’s death was shown to be false. While it is true that the investigation found no violations of Mr. Brown’s civil rights, and therefore no federal charges would come, that isn’t the totality of what Attorney General Eric Holder discovered. His investigation also uncovered rampant corruption which included police brutality, systemic practices of overcharging, and a municipality that was funded through unreasonable fines and fees. The investigation also found that these unethical and illegal practices were aimed almost exclusively against African Americans. In the wake of this report, the City Council of Ferguson accepted a consent decree with the federal government in which the city agreed to systemic change.
In 2017 when Jess Sessions took over the Department of Justice, he made it clear that oversight of the police, and an insistence on living up to these consent decrees would not be enforced by the Trump administration. Under the dog-whistle phrase of being “pro police”, both Sessions, and later William Barr ignored agreements made between police and Obama’s DOJ. Indeed, Barr made clear what he thought about police, and their interactions with communities of color: “But I think today, American people have to focus on something else, which is the sacrifice and the service that is given by our law enforcement officers,” Barr said. “And they have to start showing, more than they do, the respect and support that law enforcement deserves ― and if communities don’t give that support and respect, they might find themselves without the police protection they need.”
Could incidents such as the murders of George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor have been prevented had Trump’s DOJ continued creating a culture of accountability when citizens are hurt, maimed or killed without justification by law enforcement? Had these consent decrees continued to be enforced, would police have been more intentional about addressing the implicit biases that they have toward communities of color? No one can say for sure, but its clear that the current administration sent a message to police that was the complete opposite of accountability and change.
As President-Elect Biden prepares to enter the white house in 2021, he must address the extremely destructive, and discriminatory policies of the past four years by the current Department of Justice under President Trump. It is reasonable to expect that whomever is selected to run the DOJ in 2021, will be cut from the same cloth as Loretta Lynch and Eric Holder, the two AGs that served under President Obama. America needs an Attorney General that will not only prosecute individuals who violate our federal laws, but one who will also commit to understanding the root causes of crime, and work to address those causes in a substantive manner. As we saw during the Obama years, working to address those root causes, redirecting resources away from biased policies that fuel mass incarceration, and reallocating those funds into community based development will result in a reduction in homicides, a drop in incarceration, and less crime overall.
Until Next Time,
Peace 2fingaz
Indy N.E.R.V.E. 