Showing posts with label Justice Department. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Justice Department. Show all posts

Monday, May 9, 2016

WATCH LIVE as AG Loretta Lynch presents “Law Enforcement Action” Against North Carolina’s Hate Law



Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory files a Lawsuit against the DOJ




So what you see is a foolish attempt to keep a unconstitutional law alive/ Pat and the state Department of Public Safety Secretary Frank Perry had the nerve to file a suit against the Justice Department. They claim that the DOJ created a “radical reinterpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.”

Girl, this is a dumb ass tactic that I know Loretta Lynch is looking them like "Bitches, please."

This suit continues to waste taxpayers money and possibly, preparing Pat's exit out of the Governor's seat.

Let watch as this suit fails.

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

U.S. Justice Department says HB2 violates federal Civil Rights Act



And speaking on HB2... The U.S. Justice Department officials just let Gov. Pat McCrory know that HB2 violates the U.S. Civil Rights Act.

In fact, the Justice Department sent a letter informing him that if they keep HB2, North Carolina could lose millions in federal school funding.

Here's more:
In the letter, Valita Gupta, principal deputy assistant attorney general, said, “”...The Department of Justice has determined that, as a result of compliance with and implementation of NC House Bill2, both you and the state of NC are in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act 0f 1964...

“Title VII prohibits an employer from discriminating against an individual on the basis of sex and from otherwise resisting the full enjoyment of Title VII rights....

“Federal courts and administrative agencies have applied Title VII to discrimination against transgender individuals based on sex, including gender identity....

“Access to sex-segregated restrooms and other workplace facilities consistent with gender identity is a term, condition or privilege of employment. Denying such access to transgender individuals, whose gender identity is different from the gender assigned at birth, while affording it to similarly situated non-transgender employees, violates Title VII …

“HB 2...is facially discriminatory against transgender employees on the basis of sex because it treats transgender employees, whose gender identity does not match their biological sex, as defined by HB2, differently from similarly situated non transgender employees…

Based upon the above, we have concluded that in violation of Title VII, the state is engaged in a pattern or practice of resistance to the full enjoyment of Title VII rights byu employees of public agencies…

“Please advise the department, therefore, no later than the close of business on May 9, 2016, whether you will remedy these violations of Title VII including by confirming that the state will not comply with or implement HB2....

“We further inform you that that today the department sent letters addressed to the NC Department of Public Safety and the University of NC similarly notifying them of our conclusion that they have engaged in violations of Title VII as well as violations of Title IX.”
I bet Pat's face is cracked and on the ground in many small pieces.

source

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Justice Department Files Lawsuit to Bring Constitutional Policing to Ferguson


Here is the Press Release
Justice Department Files Lawsuit to Bring Constitutional Policing to Ferguson, Missouri

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced today that the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the city of Ferguson, Missouri, alleging a pattern or practice of law enforcement conduct that violates the First, Fourth and 14th Amendments of the Constitution and federal civil rights laws.

“Today, the Department of Justice is filing a lawsuit against the city of Ferguson, Missouri, alleging a pattern or practice of law enforcement conduct that violates the Constitution and federal civil rights laws,” said Attorney General Lynch. “The residents of Ferguson have waited nearly a year for their city to adopt an agreement that would protect their rights and keep them safe. They have waited nearly a year for their police department to accept rules that would ensure their constitutional rights and that thousands of other police departments follow every day. They have waited nearly a year for their municipal courts to commit to basic, reasonable rules and standards. But residents of Ferguson have suffered the deprivation of their constitutional rights – the rights guaranteed to all Americans – for decades. They have waited decades for justice. They should not be forced to wait any longer.”

“Our investigation found that Ferguson’s policing and municipal court practices violate the Constitution, erode trust and undermine public safety,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “As shown by our lawsuit today, the Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce the law to ensure that Ferguson implements long-overdue reforms necessary to create constitutional, effective and accountable policing. Ferguson residents and police officers deserve a law enforcement system that productively and fairly serves the entire community.”

The lawsuit, filed pursuant to Section 14141 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI), alleges that the city of Ferguson, through its police department and municipal court:


  • conducts stops, searches and arrests without legal justification, and uses excessive force, in violation of the Fourth Amendment;
  • interferes with the right to free expression in violation of the First Amendment;
  • prosecutes and resolves municipal charges in a manner that violates due process and equal protection guaranteed by the 14th Amendment; and
  • engages in discriminatory law enforcement conduct against African Americans in violation of the 14th Amendment and federal statutory law.

The lawsuit follows a comprehensive investigation of Ferguson’s police department and municipal court conducted by the Civil Rights Division. In March 2015, the department detailed its investigative findings in a 104-page report. The department found that Ferguson’s focus on generating revenue over public safety, together with racial bias, has a profound effect on Ferguson’s police and court practices, resulting in conduct that routinely violates the Constitution and federal civil rights laws.

The complaint alleges that from October 2012 to October 2014, African Americans were more than twice as likely to be searched, to receive a citation or to be arrested, than other stopped individuals. Of all incidents from 2010 to August 2014, African Americans account for 88 percent of all incidents in which a Ferguson police officer reported using force. For municipal offenses where Ferguson police officers have a high degree of discretion in charging, African Americans were again disproportionately represented as compared to their relative representation in Ferguson. While African Americans make up 67 percent of the Ferguson’s population, they make up 95 percent of manner of walking in roadway charges; 94 percent of failure to comply charges; 92 percent of resisting arrest charges; 92 percent of disturbing the peace charges; and 89 percent of failure to obey charges. The department also found that Ferguson’s law enforcement conduct has created a lack of trust between the police department and the community members it serves, especially African Americans.

On Feb. 9, the Ferguson City Council voted to reject the consent decree that the city’s negotiating team had negotiated. Unable to reach a mutually agreed upon court-enforceable settlement to remedy the department's findings, the lawsuit was filed today in order to seek declaratory and injunctive relief to remedy the unlawful conduct identified by the department’s investigation.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

WATCH Eric Holder and Ferguson's Mayor responses to the DOJ Investigation Findings

Yesterday, everything went down on Ferguson. Eric Holder released the DOJ report on Ferguson's PD and courts and social media went crazy.

Here is his response



And here is Ferguson Mayor James Knowles edited response

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Justice Department report calls out Ferguson's Police on their Bias and Excessive Force


Ooh wee, The DOJ investigation on Police department in Ferguson is back with some key info on their practices. Trust me, it's some good stuff.

NYT reports

The Justice Department, which opened its investigation after a white Ferguson police officer shot and killed a black teenager last summer, says the discrimination was fueled in part by racial stereotypes held by city officials. Investigators say the officials made racist jokes about blacks on their city email accounts.

The report’s findings were summarized by a federal law enforcement official. The full report is expected to be released on Wednesday. A separate report is expected to clear the officer, Darren Wilson, of any civil rights violations in the shooting of Mr. Brown.

Ferguson officials now face the choice of either negotiating a settlement with the Justice Department or potentially being sued by it on charges of violating the Constitution.

In compiling the report, federal investigators conducted hundreds of interviews, reviewed 35,000 pages of police records and analyzed race data compiled for every police stop. They concluded that, over the past two years, African-Americans — who make up about two-thirds of the city’s population — accounted for 85 percent of traffic stops, 90 percent of citations, 93 percent of arrests and 88 percent of cases in which the police used force.

Black motorists were twice as likely as whites to be searched but were less likely to be found in possession of contraband such as drugs or guns.

The findings reinforce what the city’s African-American residents have been saying publicly for the past year: that years of discrimination and mistrust created the volatile environment that erupted after Mr. Brown’s shooting.
More from MSNBC

In 88% of documented incidents in which police used of force against someone, that person was black. Blacks were even bitten by police dogs disproportionately. In each of the 14 cases involving someone being bitten by a police dog, that person was black.

The poor treatment didn’t end on the street. Blacks in Ferguson were 68% less likely than others to have their cases dismissed by the Municipal Judge and were disproportionately likely to have a warrant issued against them, according to the report. As recently as 2013, 96% of the people who were arrested on an outstanding warrant were black.

But even more than the treatment they received once stopped, the Justice Department’s report found that blacks were used in the criminal justice system to buoy the city’s economy and balance its budget. The practices uncovered by federal investigators have violated residents’ Constitutional Rights of due process and equal protection under the law.
I will post the full report hopefully tomorrow

The DOJ’s report found that blacks were also subject to unfair stops and arrest for minor offenses like “manner of walking” in a roadway.

Since 2010, according to the report, the court has collected more revenue for Failure to Appear in court charges than any other charge. The court collected $442,901 in fines for such violations accounting for nearly 25% of total court revenue that year.

The Stuff

My photo
Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.