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Originally Posted by dc_dux
Of course its gone on for decades. That is why Congress, in the early 90s, saw a need to expand the oversight responsibilities of the DoJ to investigate civil rights violations by police rather than rely solely on the long-standing practice of leaving such investigations to the internal affairs division of the police department in question.
The majority of career attorneys in the Civil Rights Division of the DoJ would disagree with you and that the change in direction and emphasis of the Division mandated by Bush, through his AGs, have weakened its capacity to perform its lawful functions of protecting civil rights.
loquitor.....Do you think the federal government should have a role in investigating police misconduct, particularly if there is a pattern existing over time within a department? Evidently, the Bush DoJ does not.
I believe police and prosecutorial misconduct is a serious problem..and part of the solution is to let the DoJ do its job in a non-politicized manner.
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If I may answer this, it is absolutely the job of the federal government to not only HAVE a role, but to BE the role in this. The constitution was written giving specific power to the feds to protect the rights of it's citizens, this is also what the 13th and 14th amendments were ratified for. The problem we face is over the last 40 years, we've let the 'thin blue line' cross over into an 'us v. them' line of thinking and we've not done much about it.
The solution no longer lies with giving more power to the government to investigate, but removing that power from them and placing it back in to the peoples hands. Civilian oversight committees MUST have unfettered access as well as forcing police chiefs, mayors, and city councils to lend near total weight to the oversight commission decisions. We should no longer tolerate the abuse of authority and the coverups payed off with taxpayer money.