Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Its about damn time!

Solon.com is reporting that the US Department of Justice is launching an investigation into systematic civil rights abuses such as harassment of racial minorities, false arrests, illegal searches, and excessive use of force by big-city police departments.


Well its about damn time guys! These investigations called "patterns and practices" investigations come from a 1994 law passed by Congress after the brutal beating of Rodney King by the LAPD. While this is a welcome revelation we would like to point out that the problem is much wider than "big-city police departments". As The National Police Misconduct Statistic and Reporting Project shows us each and everyday. The problems of police misconduct and crimes committed by the police stretch from the NYPD and LAPD to Smallville USA... for this to have the impact it should, the US DOJ needs to look at the wider abuses by medium and small police departments as well. 


But until then, this is a very good and much needed step in the right direction.


Hats off to the US DOJ!

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