This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, January 16, 2017:
On Thursday, the Baltimore City Council assented to the final step in turning the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) into a de facto branch of the Department of Justice: it agreed to be bound by a “consent decree” – 227 pages of federal regulations, mandates, and rules that now control even the minutest behaviors of every employee of the BPD, from beat cop to the top.
The strategy begins with an “incident,” followed by protests usually encouraged by Marxist sympathizers, followed by charges of corruption, followed by a federal “investigation” into those charges, ending up with a consent decree between the federal government and the local police that effectively turns the local police into a branch of the federal government.
In the Baltimore case, the “incident” involved the death of Freddie Gray. Gray, a young black thug with a rap sheet containing at least 20 arrests, tried to run from a BPD cop on a bike conducting a routine patrol back in 2015. Gray was chased down, found to have a switchblade knife on his person – which is illegal in Baltimore – was arrested, and was placed in a police van. On the way to the station for booking, Gray became so violent that he broke his neck. He died a week later.
Riots staged by Black Lives Matter revolutionaries (and largely funded by billionaire George Soros) started burning the city. State attorney Marilyn Mosley, a Marxist sympathizer, saw her opportunity and charged the six officers involved with manslaughter, “depraved heart” murder, illegal arrest of Gray, and other assorted charges.
When she announced the charges to the crowd of rioters, she exclaimed “I heard your call for ‘No justice, no peace.' Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man.… Our time has come!”
After two weeks of rioting, the National Guard was called in to put an end to it, but only after massive property damage had been inflicted.
The feds stepped in, starting an investigation that took months to complete, but the outcome was a foregone conclusion: police corruption, excessive use of force, unreasonable searches and stops (especially of blacks), lack of transparency, poor training, and so forth. After the investigation was completed, Baltimore “agreed in principle” to a consent decree.
On Thursday, that consent decree was approved by the Baltimore City Council, turning the police department into a de facto arm of the Department of Justice.
The next day, the Department of Justice completed its investigation into the shooting of black Laquan McDonald by a white Chicago police officer in 2014. The same scenario unfolded. First, the “incident” – the shooting of a black by a white policeman. Second, protests that grew into riots, encouraged by local media. In contrast to the rioting in Baltimore, which lasted two weeks, the riots in Chicago lasted months.
Third, the “investigation”:
This investigation was initiated as Chicago grappled with the aftermath of the release of a video showing a white police officer fatally shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald….
The aftermath included protests….
We … found that CPD officers engage in a pattern of using force, including deadly force, that is unreasonable….
CPD has not provided [its] officers with adequate guidance to understand how and when they may use force, or how to safely and effectively control and resolve encounters to reduce the need to use force….
CPD … engages in a pattern or practice of force in violation of the Constitution….
The pattern of unlawful force we found resulted from a collection of poor police practices….
And so forth.
What happens next is predictable. Following the Baltimore pattern, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel will sign the AIP – agreement in principle – that starts the process of building the consent decree. It will involve Rahm's office, the Chicago City Council, the Chicago Police Department, and the U.S. Department of Justice. It will take months, but the end will be the same as in Baltimore: a very long federal rulebook (Baltimore's consent decree is 227 pages) detailing in excruciating detail changes affecting police activities from the street cop to the department's highest levels. It will not be optional: there will be an “independent monitor” to ensure compliance by Chicago – a federal judge.
This is the same pattern spelled out by Jan Kozak in his 1999 book, And Not a Shot is Fired, wherein he describes how the citizens of Czechoslovakia lost their freedoms through the same “pressure from below, pressure from above” tactics.
In summary: First is the “incident” that is followed by protests and riots staged by communists and Marxists. That is followed up with demands for an investigation that concludes that there is sufficient corruption present in the local police department to warrant a federal investigation. That leads inevitably to a federally enforced “consent decree.” The pressure from below – the protesters, usually on the payroll of BLM – is followed by pressure from above: the mayor and the city council reluctantly or sometimes welcoming the investigation and ultimately giving assent to the consent decree. For all intents and purposes, once the decree is in place, the local police department becomes an arm of the federal Justice Department.
Since 1997 the Department of Justice has conducted 69 such “investigations” and has obtained 40 “consent decrees” turning those local police departments into de facto agencies of the federal government.
Say it right: when local police are turned into federal police, they're called Gestapo.
Sources:
Washington Times: Loretta Lynch: Baltimore Police commit to reforms, oversights
Fox News: Baltimore Police commits to sweeping changes in Justice Dept. deal
And not a shot is fired, by Jan Kozak
Chicago Tribune: Landmark moment for Chicago police as Justice report to be released today
The Shooting of Laquan McDonald
The official report from DOJ on the CPD
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