Americans paying attention are aware of last-minute, desperate, pre-Trump, Biden DOJ attempts to force consent decrees on the Minneapolis and Louisville police Departments. Thus far, those efforts to emasculate the police have not been successful. Federal judges in both jurisdictions are in no hurry, potentially giving the Trump Administration the opportunity to withdraw those attempts.
This is particularly urgent in that some cities like Minneapolis, and even their police executives, support imposing consent decrees (CDs). They do this knowing it will cause even more officers to flee and make it all but impossible to recruit competent police candidates.
But why should the Trump DOJ withdraw them? Because CDs give federal judges and unelected “monitors” virtually unlimited power to keep police officers from doing their duties. The terms restrain potentially unconstitutional police actions but always impose Democrat/socialist/communist (D/s/c) social preferences, making it impossible for officers to proactively stop crime, particularly when committed by black criminals against black neighborhoods. Even if President Trump is successful in eradicating DEI elsewhere, DEI mandates in consent decrees remain. Not only that, CDs remain in force as long as monitors and the DOJ please. Some have been in force for more than a decade. They cost cities tens of millions, which virtually always comes out of the budgets of badly understaffed police agencies.
But that’s not the only way police agencies can be crushed in the service of D/s/c hatred for the police:
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Graphic: Freddie Gray riots, Fox Screenshot
Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) cited recent changes in Maryland’s use-of-force policy for why multiple law enforcement agencies were reported as being unable to assist with security for the 2025 presidential inauguration ceremonies.
Just days before the inauguration, seven Maryland-based police departments confirmed to The Daily Caller that they will not be working with MPD, despite having assisted with security in the nation’s capital in previous years. At least one department, the Montgomery County Police Department, revealed it was due to issues with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the departments. Some of these departments, including those in Anne Arundel County and Prince George’s County, as well as Maryland State Police, said they would be assisting the United States Capitol Police instead.
“Due to differences in the interpretation of Maryland’s recent legislation on Use of Force compared to the District of Columbia’s Use of Force policies, some Maryland agencies are unable to assist MPD directly for the inauguration…Washington, D.C. police told The Daily Caller in a statement.
What changes? In 2021, in response to the death of Saint George Floyd, the Maryland Legislature repealed its Police Bill of Rights. Here’s the worst part:
The sweeping police reform bill stipulates force can be used only to prevent “an imminent threat of physical injury” to a person or to “effectuate a legitimate law enforcement objective.” It also upgraded the standard for using force from “reasonable” to “necessary and proportional.”
That’s a real problem. For every sane state, the standard for police use of force is reasonableness. What would a reasonable police officer do under like—not identical—circumstances. The “imminent threat” standard is also excessive, and will surely cause officers to hesitate until an attacker actually attacks.
“Necessary and proportional” allows armchair warriors to review officer’s actions in the most restrictive and punitive light. This follows from legislators, politicians and even police executives who think virtually any police use of force illegitimate. This standard goes beyond a reasonableness standard. The determining factor in any use of force is whether a reasonable police officer would have applied the same or similar force. If so, it was proportional.
As if that wasn’t enough to prevent Maryland cops from doing their jobs:
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Graphic: Freddie Gray riots, Fox Screenshot
Maryland’s new law states that officers who violate the use-of-force standard and cause serious injury or death can face up to ten years in prison. Former Republican Governor Larry Hogan vetoed the legislation but was overridden by the Maryland General Assembly on April 10, 2021.
Currently, Maryland police who violate that use-of-force standard as determined by police-hating bureaucrats and prosecutors can find themselves spending a decade in prison. Police in blue cities have, since even before Defund the Police lunacy, stopped being proactive. Understanding that lawfully doing their jobs, particularly where criminals are members of D/s/c favored victim groups, will be far more likely to send them to prison than criminals, officers have sanely shifted to avoiding those protected criminals and to doing as little as possible.
Combining that reasonable response to insane policies with blue state decriminalization of crime, it’s no wonder crime rates in blue states and cities have skyrocketed.
The inevitable result of this new use of force policy will be officers retreating from confrontation even more and doing even less than ever before. Maryland is going to lose even more cops to retirement, to other states that allow officers to do their jobs, and many will quit the profession altogether.
Maryland residents voted for the politicians who wanted this, and they’re getting it good and hard.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
This article was originally published at www.americanthinker.com
