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The new committee being established by the Trump administration to examine crime and justice will have a broad mandate, but significant differences from a similar panel created during the Obama administration and one appointed a half-century ago.
In announcing the panel Monday at the International Association of Chiefs of Police( IACP) convention in Chicago, President Donald Trump made a brief allusion to the criminal justice commission appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960 s, claiming that his commission would the first of its kind in 50 years.
The Johnson panel examined the entire criminal justice system but Trump’s ordering focused on policing issues, including” challenges to law enforcement associated with mental illness, homelessness, substance abuse, and other social factors that influence crime and strain criminal justice resources ,” as well as” the recruitment, hiring, qualify, and retention of law enforcement officers .”
President Barack Obama developed his own “task force” on 21 st century policing , which was aimed primarily at bridging the” trust crack” between the police and the public after the polemic surrounding the police killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo, in 2014.
Both the Johnson and Obama panels included experts from academia and elsewhere. It is suggested that the Trump commission will include only federal officials and” elected officers of state, neighbourhood, and tribal governments .”
The selection is likely to be up to Attorney General William Barr.
The scope of the brand-new panel was not fully clear.
The IACP, which has been lobbying over practically three decades for a successor to the Johnson commission, declared that Trump commission ” is designed to conduct a system-wide, comprehensive review of the criminal justice system .”
The Fraternal Order of Police, which also lobbied for the new commission, echoed the IACP in saying that the brand-new study would involve a” comprehensive analysis of the administration of justice in our nation today .”
That was not evident from Trump’s executive order establishing the panel, which said today would study” matters pertaining to law enforcement agencies and the administration of justice ,” but most of the examples of issues listed in the order for the commission’s agenda involve policing.
One exception was ” repudiations by State and neighbourhood attorneys to enforce laws or prosecute categories of crimes .”
In his speech to the IACP, Trump was critical of a brand-new engender of so-called progressive prosecutors in several big cities, who have said that they will not bring charges in some categories of low-level offenses, such as possession of small quantities of drugs, and instead is used to refer supposes to treatment programs.
The Trump order called also for” rigorous study of crime, to be incorporated causal factors .”
The brand-new commission seems to be seeking simply recommendations for action by government agencies rather than by strangers such as community organizations or academic researchers.
The IACP’s interpreting was that the commission will” study issues that are critical to ensuring that our communities are safe, and that those who enforce and administer the law are properly supported .”
The order establishing the commission was criticized by Nina Ginsberg, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyer( NACDL ), who said today” wholly fails to acknowledge or recommend solutions to critical criminal justice issues like mass incarceration, systemic racism, disparate policing of minority and poor communities, overcriminalization, the evisceration of the human rights to experiment, inadequate intent requirements in the criminal law, unfair breakthrough practises, the need for pretrial reform, and so much more .”
Illinois police officials had a mixed reaction to the president’s speech, with some greeting the president’s support for law enforcement and others taking issue with the president’s harsh criticism of Chicago and its police superintendent, reports WBEZ radio in Chicago .
One police chief who viewed Trump’s announcement was Mitchell Davis of Hazel Cres, Il ., who is second vice president of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and the national recording secretary for the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.
“A lot of people keep talking about the president being the greatest advocate for enforcement actions, ” Davis told WBEZ. “I don’t know that we’ve ever had a president, Democrat, Republican or otherwise, I don’t know that I can think of anybody who’s ever been against the police.”
Davis likened Trump’s unquestioning support of police with the Obama task force, which Davis said helped many police departments become “more equitable, ” by taking a more critical look at policing in America.
Westchester, Il ., Police Chief Steven Stelter, president of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, said it was “refreshing” to hear praise and substantiate from Trump. “It’s always a pleasure to see someone, especially someone with the title of president of the United Commonwealth, address us and to really go out there and be a cheerleader and display his support because we have not had that in quite a long time, ” Stelter said.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson refused to attend Trump’s speech, saying,” the values of the people of Chicago are more important than anything he would have to say.”
Trump threw those terms back at Johnson. “I want Eddie Johnson to change his appreciates and change them fast, ” Trump said.
“It’s embarrassing to us as a commonwealth. All over the world they’re talking about Chicago. Afghanistan is a safe place, by comparison. It’s true.”
Ted Gest is president of Criminal Justice Journalists and Washington bureau chief of The Crime Report.
Read more: thecrimereport.org
