Obama promises law enforcement changes in wake of protests, rage over police violence

By Hazel Trice Edney Trice Edney Newswire [caption id="attachment_15556" align="alignright" width="654"] President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. meet with Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and Laurie Robinson, professor of criminology, law and society at George Mason University, and a former assistant attorney general, who will be co-chairing a presidential task force on how communities and law enforcement can work together to build trust to strengthen neighborhoods across the country, in the Oval Office, Dec. 1, 2014.
PETE SOUZA/THE WHITE HOUSE PHOTO.[/caption] Outrage continues across the country this week over the epidemic of police violence, profiling and harassment of Black people. The consistent protests were sparked by the Aug. 9 shooting of unarmed Ferguson teenager Michael Brown. Thousands of protesters in dozens of cities around the world took to the streets, Nov. 24, after Prosecutor Robert McCulloch, who led the grand jury process, announced the decision of the jury of nine whites and three Blacks not to indict Officer Darren Wilson, who killed Brown. A week later, Dec. 3, a Staten Island grand jury cleared New York Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold-death of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old husband and father of six. Officer Pantaleo, who is white, killed Garner, who is Black, while attempting to arrest him, July 17, for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. Garner repeated, "I can't breathe," while being choked to death by the NYPD officer. “As I said last week in the wake of the grand jury decision, I think Ferguson laid bare a problem that is not unique to St. Louis or that area, and is not unique to our time, and that is a simmering distrust that exists between too many police departments and too many communities of color,” President Barack Obama said in televised statements from the White House Monday evening, Dec. 1. “The sense that in a country where one of our basic principles, perhaps the most important principle, is equality under the law, that too many individuals, particularly young people of color, do not feel as if they are being treated fairly.” President Obama’s remarks came after a day-long White House meeting with elected officials, community and faith leaders, and law enforcement officials “on how communities and law enforcement can work together to build trust to strengthen neighborhoods across the country.” “When any part of the American family does not feel like it is being treated fairly, that’s a problem for all of us,” Obama said. “It’s not just a problem for some. It’s not just a problem for a particular community or a particular demographic. It means that we are not as strong as a country as we can be.” But the President’s words and announcement of his plans may not be enough to quell the unrest. Even civil rights leaders challenge him on his actions. The Rev. Jesse Jackson this week challenged the president to go to Ferguson, a community writhing in pain. “Ferguson is too important to be treated on the margins,” Jackson wrote in his weekly column (see page 7), released Dec. 1 after the president’s White House meeting. The column titled, “Mr. President, Come to Ferguson” stated, “There is a Ferguson in every metropolitan area of America… At times, a single incident throws a powerful light on a reality. Ferguson is one of those times. And to ensure that this reality is not simply discussed in passing, but dealt with, elevated to the top of the national agenda, President Obama should come to Ferguson.” The president’s White House meeting came after a week of protests that erupted with peaceful marching; but also the burning of buildings and cars in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, after the grand jury announced it would not indict Wilson. Wilson, this week resigned from the police department. Spokesmen said he would receive no severance or other payments from the department. President Obama said his meeting on Dec. 1 began “a process in which we’re able to surface honest conversations with law enforcement, community activists, academics, elected officials, the faith community, and try to determine what the problems are and, most importantly, try to come up with concrete solutions that can move the ball forward.” President Obama announced:

• A new task force that will listen to law enforcement and community activists and other stakeholders and report back to him in 90 days with concrete recommendations, including best practices for communities where law enforcement and neighborhoods are working well together.
• The signing of an executive order that will prevent building a militarized culture inside local law enforcement agencies.
• Expanded funding for local law enforcement for training, including up to 50,000 additional body-worn cameras for police and law enforcement.
• The convening of a series of these meetings across the country, “because this is not a problem simply of Ferguson, Mo. This is a problem that is national.”

Still, unrest appears to be growing as protests — both organized and spontaneous — continue around the nation. Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking to a crowd at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta this week, was interrupted by protestors, shouting, “No Justice, No Peace!” among other chants. Holder announced plans to deal with racial profiling. “In the coming days, I will announce updated Justice Department guidance regarding profiling by federal law enforcement. This will institute rigorous new standards — and robust safeguards — to help end racial profiling, once and for all,” Holder said, according to reports. “This new guidance will codify our commitment to the very highest standards of fair and effective policing.” Whether initiatives by the Obama Administration will stop the protests is questionable at best. The anger is being fueled by decades of unchecked police brutality in Black communities with little acknowledgement of it. “The Ferguson Grand Jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown is a miscarriage of justice. It is a slap in the face to Americans nationwide who continue to hope and believe that justice will prevail,” said Congressional Black Caucus Chair Marcia L. Fudge in a statement responding to the jury’s decision. “This decision seems to underscore an unwritten rule that Black lives hold no value; that you may kill Black men in this country without consequences or repercussions. This is a frightening narrative for every parent and guardian of Black and brown children, and another setback for race relations in America.” Rev. Al Sharpton preached at Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church, Nov. 30, where Michael Brown’s funeral and burial procession was held. Brown’s parents, Michael Brown, Sr. and Lesley McSpadden attended the service. Sharpton also hosted a national conference call with over 150 ministers, who pledged to pause during their Sunday services to pray for justice and peace. Sharpton and Brown Sr. then went to Rev. Carlton Lee’s The Flood Christian Church, which was firebombed the night of the grand jury decision announcement. The FBI is investigating the incident. Flood Christian Church is Michael Brown, Sr.’s home church, he was recently baptized by Rev. Lee there; Rev. Lee is also the president of the Ferguson chapter of National Action Network, under Rev. Sharpton. The NAACP launched a “Journey for Justice” March on Nov. 30 in partnership with a coalition of civil rights organizations. Marchers are on a journey from Ferguson to the Governor’s Mansion in Jefferson City, Mo. to “demand new leadership of the Ferguson Police Department, and wholesale changes to police and criminal justice processes and procedures to end racial profiling and police brutality.” Meanwhile, some have criticized Pres. Obama’s pick to lead his community-law enforcement task force. Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, civil rights attorney and executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund says Obama’s co-chair appointee Charles Ramsey, Philadelphia Police Commissioner is a “mass violator of civil rights and civil liberties.” Ramsey is reportedly known for leading repeated bloody and abusive crackdowns on protesters when he was chief of police in Washington, D.C. Verheyden-Hilliard won millions in damages for hundreds of citizens attacked by D.C. police under Ramsey’s watch. “If the president’s idea of reforming policing practices includes mass false arrests, brutality, and the eviscerating of civil rights, then Ramsey’s his man,” Hilliard said. She added the president should rescind his appointment of Commissioner Ramsey.