Maryland longs for 1980s with new crime fighting initiative

With its crosshairs locked on Baltimore, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan's new strategic crime plan reeks of scary, 1980s type criminal justice tactics that have proven to be discriminatory toward African-Americans and generally ineffective, reports the Baltimore Sun. 

Several of the “highlights” of his strategy include: a new council on gangs and criminal networks comprised of prosecutors and police (with no advocates for defendants), new shared criminal intelligence collaborations, the use of various agencies to police Baltimore, additional parole and probation officers, aggressive warrant sweeps and — most troubling — new legislation to increase or add mandatory minimum sentences and assure that sentences are always served to their fullest extent.

This is old school, tough-on-crime rhetoric. Such talk incorporates typical shock-and-awe anecdotes to force legislative bodies to pass new, stiffer penalties. However, it's never backed by empirical data showing that heightened sentences or an increased law enforcement presence do anything more than lock more people up while creating an occupying force in certain neighborhoods. 

We need to be careful that the governor's plan isn't just a reactionary, do-something approach when Baltimore citizens' fundamental rights are at stake and more effective violence reduction strategies exist.

The proposed crime plan would take us in the opposite direction of last year's Maryland Justice Reinvestment Act (JRA). Justice reinvestment is a national movement that calls for decriminalization of minor offenses (like marijuana possession and some criminal traffic charges) and reductions in sentencing for many non-violent offenses in an effort to reduce incarceration. Maryland's JRA did three important things. First, it reduced penalties for possession of hard drugs (and made similar changes to theft laws). Second, it eliminated mandatory minimum sentencing in drug cases. Third, it lessened the sting from minor probation infractions. These were progressive, long overdue moves that directly benefit the targets of the drug war — in Baltimore it's young black men — who are policed and prosecuted more heavily than other populations and who will be most negatively affected by the governor's plan.

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Police fatally shot 987 people last year, up from 2016

For the third year in a row, police nationwide shot and killed nearly 1,000 people, which the Washington Post calls “a grim annual tally that has persisted despite widespread public scrutiny of officers’ use of fatal force.” Police fatally shot 987 people last year, or two dozen more than they killed in 2016, found a Post database project that tracks the fatal shootings, reported The Crime Report.

Since 2015, The Post has logged the details of 2,945 shooting deaths, culled from local news coverage, public records and social-media reports. While many of the year-to-year patterns are consistent, the number of unarmed black males killed in 2017 declined from two years ago. Last year, police killed 19, a figure tracking closely the 17 killed in 2016. In 2015, police shot and killed 36 unarmed black males.

Some experts believe the tally may correspond to the number of times police encounter people, an outcome of statistical probability. Others are exploring whether the number tracks with overall violence in U.S. society. “The numbers indicate that this is not a trend, but a robust measure of these shootings,” said criminologist Geoff Alpert of the the University of South Carolina. “We now have information on almost 3,000 shootings, and we can start looking to provide the public with a better understanding of fatal officer-involved shootings.”

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GateHouse: Police officer deaths down, homicide up

Matthew T. Mangino

GateHouse Media

January 5, 2018

There was a sharp decline in police officers killed in the line of duty last year. In 2017 there were 129 officers killed in the line of duty — 14 fewer than the year before. In 2016 there were 66 police officers killed by gunfire, that number dropped by more than 30 percent in 2017.

The number of officers killed last year marks the second lowest death toll in more than a half-a-century.

However, those numbers reflect only the officers killed. The National Fraternal Order of Police recorded more than 270 officers who were shot in the line of duty last year. The death toll may have been higher but for tactical gear, better training or as Randy Sutton, a former police lieutenant and spokesman for Blue Lives Matter told the USA Today, police officers don’t put themselves in dangerous situations as often, “There’s a saying in law enforcement: You can’t get in trouble for the car stop you don’t make.”

The Blue Lives Matter website provides that the organization was founded following the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, that followed the shooting of Michael Brown by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. The website declares, “The media catered to movements such as Black Lives Matter, whose goal was the vilification of law enforcement. Criminals who rioted and victimized innocent citizens were further given legitimacy by the media as ‘protesters.’”

Some criminal justice experts suggest there is a causal link between the unrest and the increase in homicides nationwide. According to the New York Times, homicides rose by 8.6 percent in 2016, one year after homicides jumped by 10.8 percent. A total of 17,250 people were murdered in the U.S. in 2016.

Heather MacDonald, of the Manhattan Institute, has dubbed it the “Ferguson Effect,” a reference to the rise in violent crime following the unrest in Ferguson in 2014.

As McDonald sees it, according to The Daily Caller, police officers are so worried about being vilified by city leaders and the press that they are avoiding contact with the criminal element.

“Cops are backing off of proactive policing in high-crime minority neighborhoods, and criminals are becoming emboldened,” MacDonald wrote in the City Journal. “Having been told incessantly by politicians, the media, and Black Lives Matter activists that they are bigoted for getting out of their cars and questioning someone loitering on a known drug corner at 2 a.m., many officers are instead just driving by.”

The combination of the Ferguson Effect and Blue Lives Matter is creating an interesting phenomenon. While the last two years have been two of the safest years in the last 50 years for police officers, a growing number of communities are coming off of some of the most deadly years in history.

Blue Live Matter is gaining momentum. In the last year, lawmakers in 17 states have introduced bills proposing that members of law enforcement be included in hate crime protections ― the same protections provided to people of color, religious minorities and members of the LGBTQ community ― according to an analysis by The Huffington Post.

At least four states have enacted Blue Lives Matter laws. In 2016, Louisiana became the first state to enact legislation. Last March, the governors of Kentucky and Mississippi signed versions of the law and the Texas law went into effect on Sept. 1.

According to Newsweek, California, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin have considered similar legislation.

How much can the increase in community violence and the decrease in violence against police officers be traced to a slowdown in policing as described by Blues Lives Matter’s Randy Sutton and the Manhattan Institute’s Heather McDonald?

More importantly, how much will beleaguered cities and neighborhoods tolerate?

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book The Executioner’s Toll, 2010 was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.

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Sessions rescinds Obama era directives on federal marijuana enforcement

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that previous policies of non-interference with states that have legalized marijuana are "unnecessary" and called on US attorneys to enforce the Controlled Substances Act, reported Jurist.

Sessions has indicated that US attorneys should begin prosecution of those who cultivate, distribute or possess marijuana, launder money, or in any other way break national laws prohibiting marijuana. In the memo, the attorney general called marijuana "dangerous" and activity surrounding the drug to be a "serious crime."

Specifically, Sessions has invalidated former deputy attorney general David Ogden's 2009 memo authorizing the medical use of marijuana, and former deputy attorney general James Cole's memos giving guidance to medical enforcement, financial crimes and general enforcement. The abolished memos moved in a direction towards tolerance and non-interference.

This change raises questions of whether previously halted raids of marijuana facilities might start up again. Additionally, Sessions' memo might contradict United States v. McIntosh , in which the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled against the enforcement of the Controlled Substance Act for medical marijuana.

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Push back against crime victims' rights

After his sister was slain and his mother ran into the accused killer, out on bail, in a grocery store a week later, California billionaire Henry Nicholas became a fierce advocate for the rights of crime victims.

He donated millions from his fortune as co-founder of tech giant Broadcom to create a so-called “crime victims’ bill of rights”— dubbed Marsy’s Law after his slain sister Marsalee — and add it to the state’s constitution in 2008.

Now Nicholas is taking his crusade nationwide, with teams of lobbyists, public relations firms and high-powered political strategists converging on other state capitols for a similar push. But while the idea of standing up for crime victims is an easy sell politically, complaints are mounting that the initiative is becoming a testament to the danger of unintended consequences.

Not just defense lawyers, but some local prosecutors, police and victims’ advocates are concerned that the law’s extensive victim-notification requirements could impose crippling costs and administrative burdens on smaller towns and counties with limited resources, reported The Associated Press. Supporters maintain those complaints are exaggerated and that any increased workload is worth the benefit of helping crime victims.

Still, law enforcement and victims’ advocates in some places are calling for its defeat or reversal.

“Our local government does not have enough money to operate and protect victims adequately already. Now we have these unfunded mandates that are coming through Marsy’s Law to local governments without the resources to pay for them,” said Leo Gallagher, county attorney in Lewis and Clark County, Montana.

Montana passed the measure in 2016, but the state’s Supreme Court recently tossed it out citing flaws in how it was written.

Marsy’s Law requires that crime victims be notified and heard in most criminal proceedings, receive protection and “full and timely” restitution and be allowed to confer with prosecutors. It also expands victims’ privacy rights and prohibits “unreasonable delay” of criminal cases.

The measure has been approved by voters in six states — California, Ohio, Illinois, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota — and efforts have been launched in at least nine more.

Skeptics are trying to push back.

“When we first heard about it, we thought it was a no-brainer,” said Darla Juma, who runs the victims’ witness assistance program in two counties in North Dakota, where the ballot measure passed last year. “But there are counties that don’t have a victims’ advocate, and now they’re having to send notices, notify victims. Who’s going to pay for that work?”

Some prosecutors complain that the requirements are especially impractical for white collar cases with large numbers of victims, such as securities frauds involving thousands of stockholders.

“You really would clog the system if you’re going to give thousands of people the right to be heard at every stage of a proceeding,” said Barry Pollack, former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Marty Lambert, the top prosecutor in Gallatin County, Montana, the state’s third-largest county with about 90,000 residents, said he would have to hire two additional staffers for all the hearing and offender-release notices.

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Fewer police officers killed in the line of duty in 2017

The number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty dropped sharply in 2017, marking the second-lowest toll in more than 50 years, reported the USA Today.

As of Thursday, 128 officers have died in the line of duty this year, with 44 shot and killed. That's down 10% from 2016, when 143 officers died, with 66 gunned down, according to data released by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a nonprofit aimed at honoring officers and improving safety.

The only other year with fewer deaths in the past five decades was 2013, when 116 officers were killed. 

"This is one of those good-news, bad-news situations," said Craig Floyd, president and chief executive of the fund. "On one hand, you had 128 officers who made the ultimate sacrifice, showing the cost of public safety, but for the first time since 2013, the number of deaths has actually declined."

Reasons for the drop could range from advanced safety gear such as bulletproof vests, better training, better relationships and reduced violence in communities — or just 2017 being an outlier, experts say.

"It's definitely a good sign but if it's a trend, we'll have to see," said Geoffrey P. Alpert, a professor at the University of South Carolina and a researcher on high-risk police activities. "We're starting to see the impact of all this new training and equipment, and a shift because of the overall concern for officer safety." 

While shootings played a big role, traffic accidents caused the largest number of deaths. Crashes killed 47 officers this year, down 15% from 2016. A number of factors — including enhanced policies that limit vehicle pursuits and speeding and the "move-over law," which requires drivers to slow down and switch lanes when an officer is pulled over  — could be behind the drop, experts say.

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The Vindicator: Ohio’s cash bail system unjust

Matthew T. Mangino

The Vindicator

December 31, 2017

The current bail system denies freedom to thousands of people who are presumed innocent but are financially challenged. Those who sit in jail are at risk of losing their jobs, their homes and their families.

Certainly, it’s unfair to incarcerate someone merely because they cannot afford bail. It is equally unfair to every man and woman in America to spend about $1 trillion, according to the Pretrial Justice Institute, on pretrial incarceration, which amounts to about 6 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.

Bail use explodes

According to White House Council of Economic Advisors, the use of bail has exploded in the past two decades, driving a 59-percent rise in the number of unconvicted jail inmates.

Correcting the bail crisis is not out of reach. This isn’t about being tough on crime. It’s about being fair. For some, even a nominal bond is out of reach. When an accused has no money, $1,500 might as well be $150,000.

For taxpayers the issue is just as compelling. If the cost of pretrial detention could be cut in half, taxpayers could save literally billions annually.

A number of Ohio advocacy groups have been pushing for the use of risk-assessment tools, reported the Plain Dealer of Cleveland. As a result, the Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission formed a committee on bail and pretrial services to study the issue.

The commission released a report earlier this year that recommended courts establish a pretrial system that uses an “empirically based assessment tool” to help determine if somebody should be released from jail or kept in detention while awaiting trial.

Proposed law

The Ohio Legislature responded with a proposed law, which would require courts to use the results of a “validated risk assessment tool” as part of their bail-setting decisions.

As the pool of research grows and the science of risk assessment becomes more refined, “We actually have increasingly good models of who poses a risk and who doesn’t pose a risk,” John Pfaff, a professor of law at Fordham University, told The Washington Post.

The latest pretrial risk assessment tool is the Public Safety Assessment, developed by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. Drawing from a database of over 1.5 million cases from more than 300 jurisdictions across the U.S., the algorithm calculates the probability that a defendant will commit a new crime, commit a new violent crime, or fail to return to court.

The assessment takes into consideration a number of factors, including pending charges, prior convictions, whether the current offense is violent, and whether the person has failed to appear at other pretrial hearings. But unlike a human assessor, it’s blind to race, gender, level of education, socioeconomic status, and neighborhood, all of which can affect a judge’s decision, whether subconsciously or consciously.

Some defendants being held pretrial belong in jail. Some are not eligible for bail, some are a legitimate flight risk and others a danger to society. However, some just can’t afford a monetary bond.

Detrimental impact

Detaining an accused pretrial also has a detrimental impact on families, employment and the viability of neighborhoods and communities disproportionately affected by the criminal justice system.

Ohio has now joined a chorus of jurisdictions calling for change. According to the New York Times, Colorado and New Jersey recently voted to overhaul their bail systems. Connecticut, New York, Nevada, Utah and Kentucky have adopted some sort of risk assessment tool to aid in making bail decisions.

Times are changing in the business of pretrial detention, and some merely accused of a crime – and every taxpayer – stand to benefit.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book “The Executioner’s Toll, 2010” was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com

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