Garrett Ahern
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Garrett Ahern is a biological sciences junior and Mustang News liberal columnist. These views do not necessarily reflect the opinion or editorial coverage of Mustang News.
This past Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released a statement outlining plans to investigate the Baltimore City Police Department for recurring patterns of civil rights abuse within its ranks. This announcement came just weeks after the brutal and senseless murder of Freddie Gray. Gray was a Baltimore local who died in early April as the result of a spinal cord injury incurred while in police custody ensuing his unlawful arrest.
Following her visit to Baltimore this week, recently confirmed U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch shared concern that recent events, including the “tragic in-custody death of Freddie Gray,” had led to a “serious erosion of public trust,” motivating local representatives and community leaders to pursue a federal probe into the city’s policing practices.
The investigation, Lynch continued, will decipher “whether the Baltimore Police Department has engaged in a pattern or practice of violations” of the U.S. Constitution or the community’s civil rights, looking closely at “allegations that Baltimore Police Department officers use excessive force, including deadly force; conduct unlawful searches, seizures and arrests; and engage in discriminatory policing.”
Last Tuesday, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who requested the probe, claimed the DOJ will investigate whether city police have “engaged in a pattern of stops, searches or arrests that violate the Fourth Amendment.”
A patterns and practices investigation will occur — in addition to the one being conducted by federal attorneys — which seeks to examine whether civil rights laws were violated specifically during Gray’s arrest. The city is already undergoing a voluntary investigation into alleged police brutality, which began in accordance to the DOJ six months prior to Gray’s death.
This announcement came just a week after Maryland State Attorney Marilyn Mosby shared that the state would be filing criminal charges against the officers involved in Gray’s death.
Though welcoming the news, civil rights advocates question whether either the prosecution of the officers involved in Gray’s murder or a federal investigation into the police department they represented can go far enough to address the root causes of police violence against minority groups in the U.S.
Those who wish to see progress made toward addressing inequitable treatment within our justice system must take every step as a victory. The unearthing of discrimination within police departments nationwide must take place on a case-by-case basis, slowly gaining force as supporting evidence accumulates and the widespread nature of this issue becomes irrefutable. The facts of the matter exist, but it is our responsibility to make them known in a manner appropriate to the future we wish to realize.
As history has shown, those of us seeking progress toward peaceful changes must embody the very changes we wish to see. We cannot expect to gain the support and legitimacy required by such a movement if we are guilty of the same violence we seek to eliminate.
The truth many of us are aware of, but only some of us wish to admit is that countless law enforcement agencies across the country continue to uphold a culture of racial discrimination within their ranks. Without much more needing to be said, the time has come for citizens to dismantle the biases plaguing many who “serve and protect” them. To commence this lengthy process, we must begin bringing those who brutally misuse their force to justice. Only by scratching the surface can we make progress toward addressing the root of this issue.