At the same time Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department is making civil rights violations by law enforcement a flagship issue, it has supported police every time an excessive use-of-force case has made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court,
The New York Times reports.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened more than 20 civil rights investigations into local law enforcement practices, such as the one in Ferguson, Missouri.
But at the same time, according to the Times, the department has taken positions in the courts "that make it harder for people to sue the police and that give officers more discretion about when to fire their guns."
An Arkansas civil rights lawyer who represented a case involving two men shot and killed by police there during a chase told the Times that, while rebukes of a police department can have an impact on an agency's policies, "case law touches every officer in every department in the country."
In his 2010 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama touted that his administration "has a Civil Rights Division that is once again prosecuting civil rights violations and employment discrimination. We finally strengthened our laws to protect against crimes driven by hate," and Holder has repeatedly characterized the
DOJ's Civil Rights Division as the department's "crown jewel."
Holder's DOJ has issued "rebukes" of the Ferguson, Missouri, Police Department, as well as agencies in Seattle; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Newark, New Jersey; and New Orleans, the Times reports. And he personally has spoken out about racial profiling, remarks that drew some police officers to accuse Holder of not supporting them.
In January, Holder called for nationwide tracking of use-of-force by police and attacks on officers "as a way to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the communities they protect,"
Bloomberg reported.
"This would represent a commonsense step that would begin to address serious concerns about police officer safety, as well as the need to safeguard civil liberties," Holder said during a speech in Washington.
But some police and civil rights lawyers like New York's Ronald Kuby believe there is some hypocrisy at play.
"There is an inherent conflict between people at the Justice Department trying to stop police abuses and other people at the Justice Department convincing the Supreme Court that police abuses should be excused," Kuby told the Times.
Neal Katyal, a former Obama administration acting solicitor general, told the Times that "it's natural that the instinctive reaction of the department is to support law enforcement interests, even when a particular case may have compelling facts for the individual defendant."
The DOJ is obligated to impart to the court what effect its ruling could have on federal law enforcement agencies, he said.
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