0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
The Obama Justice Department turned down a request five years ago to help the Baltimore Police Department save a training program widely credited for improving the department’s relations with the city’s crime-ridden and minority neighborhoods and reducing homicides and police-involved shootings.The department was seeking $200,000 in federal funding to help extend the Diamond Standard training program. It was discontinued in 2012 when Justice declined to act on the request and the city’s new administration decided it no longer could afford it, according to interviews.The key organizer of the training told The Washington Times that he was floored when he later learned the same Justice program whose help he sought instead gave money to the company that produced the children’s PBS series “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.”He argued that the failure to continue the Baltimore program helped contribute to the demise in police-community relations that preceded the riots over Freddie Gray, who died after he was taken into police custody.“Once they stopped training the officers — stopped their interaction with the community, that all that was left was locking people up, and that’s what led to this whole Freddie Gray thing. It was a nonsense arrest,” said Adam Walinksy, a police consultant who helped develop the training.
Author
Topic: Obama’s Justice Department turned down cop training for Baltimore (Read 243 times)
