Democrat Justice Department Investigating Democrat-Run Cities And Police Departments

You would never know it from the establishment media coverage of the announcement, but

the Democrat-run U.S. Department of Justice has announced it is going to investigate several Democrat-run cities and police departments, starting with the Louisville, Kentucky metro area.

In a statement released on Monday, April 26, 2021, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced today that the Department of Justice has “opened a pattern or practice investigation into the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government (Louisville Metro) and the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD). The investigation will assess all types of force used by LMPD officers, including use of force on individuals with behavioral health disabilities or individuals engaged in activities protected by the First Amendment. The investigation will assess whether LMPD engages in discriminatory policing, and also whether it conducts unreasonable stops, searches, seizures, and arrests, both during patrol activities and in obtaining and executing search warrants for private homes. The investigation will include a comprehensive review of LMPD policies, training, and supervision, as well as LMPD’s systems of accountability, including misconduct complaint intake, investigation, review, disposition, and discipline.”

The investigation will be led by the department’s Civil Rights Division and conducted by career attorneys and staff in the Civil Rights Division and in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky.

Department of Justice officials informed Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, LMPD Chief Erika Shields, County Attorney Mike O’Connell, and Louisville Metro Council President David James of the investigation. As part of this investigation, the Department of Justice will reach out to community groups and members of the public to learn about their experiences with LMPD.

“The Constitution and federal law require law enforcement officers to treat all people fairly and equitably, regardless of race, disability, or participation in protected First Amendment activities,” said Pamela S. Karlan, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The investigation we are announcing today will examine whether these laws are being violated, while also analyzing the root causes of any violations we may find.”

What the Department of Justice and the media aren’t telling you is that these corrupt crime-ridden jurisdictions are all run by Democrats: Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer is a Democrat. Louisville Metro Council President David James is a Democrat. Jefferson County, Kentucky, County Attorney Mike O’Connell is a Democrat. LMPD Chief Erika Shields has served as police chief in two crime-wracked Democrat-run cities, Atlanta and Louisville.

And make no mistake about it, in the year since the police killing of Breonna Taylor that apparently triggered the DOJ investigation, violent crime in general in Louisville is up almost 50% and homicides have doubled. And the victims remain overwhelmingly African-Americans, between the ages of 18 and 34.

WAVE 3 News reported on average in Louisville, one person is shot dead every 45 hours while another is hit by gunfire every 16 hours, as the city’s homicide rate has increased by a record 115%.

Note: One homicide every 45 hours would mean 195 projected homicides for this year.

”We’re catching a new homicide case every 30 days; that’s an insane amount of time to catch cases,” LMPD Lieutenant Donny Burbrink eplained to WAVE 3 News. “We’re averaging 10 to 11 homicide cases this year, per detective.”

According to the LMPD homicide report analyzed by WAVE 3 News, from January through March 21, 2021, there have been at least 45 homicide investigations opened, with one being a non-criminal death investigation. Thirty of those cases are still open and only 14 have been closed.

In 2020, there were 173 homicides; 117 of those cases are open, and 56 cases are closed.

In fact, crime was so bad in Louisville that in 2020 the FBI announced a new task force in an effort to take more cases federal – where penalties range up to more than a decade in a federal penitentiary and parole does not exist.

Astonishingly, in the face of those tragic statistics some city residents and elected officials demanded that the city “defund” the police.

“The idea of defunding or divesting means that let’s not just reform," said Cherie Dawson-Edwards, a criminal justice professor at the University of Louisville. “It’s exciting to see just regular folks caring about the issues that I care about every single day," she said.

Ultimately, during Metro Louisville’s last budget cycle police funding remained static - the council appropriated $190.6 million for the Louisville Metro Police Department, up slightly from the $189.9 million the body appropriated last year.

It continues to amaze us that anyone would want to be a police officer in a Democrat-run city like Louisville. Given that the FBI is already aware of and participating in efforts to alleviate Louisville’s crime problem it will be interesting to see if the Biden Justice Department’s investigation of the Louisville Metro police department puts the blame for its many failures and Louisville’s crime problems where they belong – on the backs of Louisville’s incompetent Democrat elected official officials.

• Department of Justice

• investigation

• Louisville Police Department

• Attorney General Merrick B. Garland

• LMPD

• Use of Force

• discriminatory policing

• Louisville crime rate

• homicides

• homicide investigation

• Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer

• LMPD Chief Erika Shields

• systemic racism

• bias

• Breonna Taylor