Writing in USA TODAY on Monday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions pointed out how the Obama administration’s use of consent decrees to impose restrictive policies upon local law enforcement has resulted in a surge in urban crime.
Obama AG Eric Holder’s Justice Department forced urban police departments to adopt sweeping policies that hindered cops. The result: “In Chicago, arrests have fallen 36 percent since 2014 to the lowest level in at least 16 years,” wrote Sessions. “… out of more than 500 non-fatal shootings in early 2016, only seven resulted in any sort of arrest.” In Baltimore, arrests fell 45 percent while homicides rose 78 percent. Shootings more than doubled.
“When proactive policing declines and violent crime rises, minority communities get hit the hardest,” Sessions wrote. “We will not sign consent decrees for political expediency that will cost more lives by handcuffing the police instead of the criminals.”
