Seattle has more homicides than new police hires in 2023: https://lnkd.in/d6jHiteY
There is an obvious reason for this grim statistic. A study from Harvard economist Roland Fryer found that pattern or practice investigations conducted by the Civil Rights Division at the US Department of Justice (DOJ) sometimes resulted in hundreds of deaths. See: “Policing the Police: The Impact of “Pattern-or-Practice” Investigations on Crime” https://lnkd.in/gYbTB-jW
We now have evidence from Seattle that DOJ consent decrees may also lead to more deaths. Seattle has been under a consent decree for 12 years and the City has been forced to spend more than $200 million to implement the DOJ mandated reforms. In 2022 and 2023 homicides in Seattle reached record levels while Seattle PD has been losing officers at a record rate and has been unable to replace them.
At the same time DOJ is claiming that their consent decree has achieved amazing results in Seattle: https://lnkd.in/dhZ-WfDp
Last week the federal judge partially lifted the consent decree despite the fact that the City of Seattle and its residents are much worse off today than they were before the consent decree began: https://lnkd.in/dVKGYBZz
This madness will only end when a mayor or city council is willing to stand up to the DOJ and refuse to sign a consent decree. I’m looking at you Louisville, Minneapolis and Phoenix. These settlement agreements are voluntary, and DOJ does not have the authority to force any city to submit to federal oversight.
If a city refuses to agree to a consent decree, then DOJ would have to file a civil lawsuit in federal court and prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the city had a “pattern or practice” of unconstitutional policing. Only one elected official has ever stood up to the DOJ and that was the Alamance County Sheriff in North Carolina. DOJ sued the Sheriff’s Office and DOJ failed to prove their case in court: https://lnkd.in/gcHvau93
DOJ lost because their pattern or practice findings are fabricated. These findings letters are based on the opinions of civil rights attorneys rather than facts or evidence. Even if a City were to lose in federal court, the worst sanction that could be imposed would be a consent decree.
“Just Say No” to DOJ consent decrees.
