Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper was on Democracy Now! to discuss Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the early statements Sessions made concerning police reforms and marijuana legalization. First, Stamper talks about the successes for police reforms in city’s like Seattle, who are under “consent decrees.” These reform agreements are legally binding and have shown considerably more progress towards better policing and less complaints than say … doing nothing at all. Of course, going back to the racist systematic murdering of people of color and mass incarceration of mostly people of color using idiotic drug laws is exactly what the Republican Trump and his bulldog Jeff Sessions want. Stamper explains that there has been decreases in the Seattle police’s use of force, firearms, tasers, while crime rates continue to go down. When asked about Jeff Sessions and his pushing of “Ferguson effect,” bogus mythology, he was none too clear.
NORM STAMPER: My response to that is, he’s clearly in lockstep with his boss, the president. He is clearly an apologist for the worst kind of policing in this country. He is pandering to police unions. He is saying things that he thinks they want to hear, and is—
AMY GOODMAN: But Sherrilyn is even saying that the police union is saying that they want to continue these.
NORM STAMPER: That’s happened in Baltimore. It’s happened in Seattle. He needs to visit those two cities and pay attention. Instead of mouthing slogans, he needs to sit down and listen to the officers themselves.
It is no coincidence that the police forces with the most egregious track records in the areas of racism and civil rights violations do not like the idea of complying with consent decrees. Watch Mr. Stamper hammer Sessions below.